Stand Out
by GreatDarkNoodleKing
Summary: Kimiko and all the others, including Keiko, are in high school! Kimiko is determined to be different, no matter what gets thrown her way! Even when a ridiculously cute boy gets shoved into her path! Kimiko refuses to blend in, Kimiko will STAND OUT! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**GreatDarkNoodleKing has a message for y'all on fanfic out theres…! I thought of this story the other day, thought it would be cute, but I want your opinions on whether or not I should continue writing it! Yaya, I'm asking for help! Don't get used to it; it'll never happen again… Anywho, this story is Kimiko and Chase and kids and a high school. Along with Jack, Wuya, Katnappe, Omi, Raimundo, and Clay. Oh, and Keiko! But, yeah. Kimiko and Keiko are transfers from Japan. They're freshies and they quickly learn about all the school kids. They meet two other transfers, both in the sophomore grade, Raimundo and Clay. All sorts of stuff happens, and eventually, well probably the first thing, they meet the school hottie, Chase Young. And Kimiko does everything she can to get him to notice her without making a complete fool of herself. So, after you read it, tell me if I should continue the story, or remove it from fanfic! DO IT!**

Stand Out (Yes, that's a song name. I based the story on the song. Listen to it.)

Kimiko was walking to her new Chinese school with her best friend from Japan, Keiko. The two girls had been transferred in the hopes of bettering the relations between Japan and China. Cuz two girls would change everything… Kimiko had her headphones in and was dancing a little as she walked. Like everyone didn't do that; everyone does, nobody will admit it. But Kimiko didn't care what people thought of her, she just kept dancing.

"Gonna… Stand out. Yeaheaheaheeah!" she sang along happily, ignoring the looks she was getting from other people walking by. They went to the school they were heading to, their uniforms revealed that. They could stare all they wanted. Kimiko was already different. She had the uniform on, but she had pink fishnet leggings on under the skirt, she had pink fingerless gloves on, pink nail polish, she had a pink choker around her neck, and she had her black hair up in a pink ponytail holder. It was like pink had thrown up on her. But Kimiko loved being unique, screw everyone else for not getting that unique was good!

Keiko laughed at her eccentric friend. Kimiko always listened to that song. She said it was how people should live their lives. They should try to stand out, not blend in. Not that Keiko disagreed, but Kimiko could be a little over the top sometimes…

"'Til mine is the only face you'll see," Kimiko sang again. Keiko elbowed her as they got to the school. This new school had a strict 'no headphones' policy. So, coupled with the uniforms, Kimiko had guessed that this school would be fairly dull. Kimiko groaned as she pulled her headphones off and shoved them into her backpack. Which, coincidentally, was a pink cat head one.

Kids were staring, but the only one who cared was Keiko, and she looked like a totally normal girl. Everybody was gawking at the new pink girl. Tons of guys were practically drooling over her. Many girls scoffed and looked away when Kimiko got near them. She didn't care. They could hate her all they wanted. As long as she had Keiko, she didn't need friends that were girls. Most of the time, girls were cruel. Kimiko often made friends with guys, and nerdy guys at that. She liked nerds; you could talk to them about anything! Even make up.

Kimiko went to her locker down the hall from Keiko's and was immediately greeted. A boy with sun kissed skin, brown hair, and emerald green eyes approached her. He smiled, leaned against the locker next to hers and said coolly, "Hey."

She groaned, "Lemme guess, you like my leggings?" The boy smirked at this.

"Ah, gee, how'd ya know?" he asked with a smile. He held his hand out to her, "Name's Raimundo Pedrosa! Yours?"

Kimiko blinked, but shook his hand, "Kimiko Tohomiko… You're not Chinese are you?"

Raimundo laughed, "Nope! One-hundred percent Brazilian, baby!"

Kimiko half laughed, half scoffed. "Don't call me baby, Rai…" she said, shoving her cat backpack into her locker. Raimundo smiled.

"Aw, you already gave me a nickname, I'm honored," he teased happily.

Kimiko frowned at him and walked away. Keiko meeting her halfway down the hallway. They then walked off to their first class together.

Upon entering the room, everyone already inside was staring ad making snide comments to each other. Kimiko only waved at a cowboy who tipped his hat to her. Kimiko and Keiko sat next to him. He was obviously _not_ Chinese. They learned his name was Clay and he was from Texas and he would only be at this school for this year, as he was a foreign exchange student. He seemed nice, even though when he talked he would always refer to pigs.

"Miss Tohomiko," the teacher spoke angrily, "I'm afraid I'll have to ask to go to the principal's office."

Kimiko laughed, "Why are you afraid? I won't bite. 'Sides, I'm not in violation of the dress code. Read it over five times last night. My clothes are totally acceptable." Everyone in the room stared in shock. All except Keiko, who put her hand against her face and shook her head. The first day and Kimiko was causing trouble.

Unfortunately, the teacher didn't have a sense of humor. So, Kimiko went to the office. As she walked through the halls, Kimiko sang softly to herself. "If I could make stop and take a look at me…" she mumbled softly as she found the principal's office.

She pushed open the door and found a little waiting room. There was a secretary at a desk and a couple of chairs across from her. Sitting in one of those chairs was a boy with spiky red hair. He had yellow goggles on his head and was wearing a black trench coat, which was currently unzipped revealing his uniform underneath, and black shoes. His skin was deathly pale and he had ruby red eyes and strange black marking under his eyes.

'I like this guy,' Kimiko thought with a smile. He was different. So, she sat next to him and introduced herself.

"Hey, my name's Kimiko, watcha in for, and what do you think your sentence will be?" she said and asked cheerfully.

The boy laughed heartily at her question. He finally replied, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, "Name's Jack Spicer. Wow, that was a good one! You're a funny gal, Kimiko!"

And the two of them started talking about all sorts of things. Apparently Jack wanted to be an inventor; he had been building robots since he was seven. He was in advanced technology, as he knew his way around a machine. He was in the office because of his trench coat. Something Kimiko didn't fail to point out that she liked very much.

Then the principal opened the door, letting a kid out who looked angry. The principal sighed when he saw Jack. "Jack, we've been through this, put the trench coat away before class, okay?" he grumbled, seeming tired.

Jack smiled brightly and said, "YESSIR!" then Jack whispered to Kimiko, "He can kiss my ass; I never part with my jacket…" Kimiko had to hold back her laughter.

The principal looked at her. "You're in violation of the dress code, I'm assuming?"

At that Kimiko jumped up and pulled out the school dress code. "Actually sir, I'm not. I read this over five times last night, and it says students must wear their uniforms. They cannot wear hats, headphones, jackets, or gang material. Students cannot alter their uniform," Kimiko smiled wickedly at Jack, who had stopped dead upon hearing her argument, then she continued, "Now… I am not wearing a hat, or headphones, or a jacket, or gang material. I'm wearing my uniform. And I have not altered my uniform. Does that sound like being in violation of the dress code to you, sir?" Satisfied, Kimiko clapped the dress code shut and folded her arms triumphantly.

The principal realized she had found a loophole, and he let her go reluctantly. Kimiko walked beside Jack for a while.

"That was incredible!" Jack was having a fangasm over how she had bested the school, "The only person I've ever seen stand up to the principal like that is… well, me!"

Kimiko smiled and said, "Great minds fight for their favorite clothes…!" Jack spluttered and laughed happily. She liked Jack, he was a freak, and that was cool. Normal people were just in denial about their weirdness. Jack was open about it, like she was. Eventually they had to part ways, but Jack left her a message.

"Give the teachers hell, Kim!" he yelled to her. Kimiko laughed and gave him a thumbs up.

She came back into the classroom, and when people saw she was still wearing her pink, they realized she actually wasn't violating the dress code. Kimiko sat proudly next to Clay, and grinned widely at Keiko.

After class was over Kimiko told Keiko all about how she had met Jack. Keiko agreed that he sounded interesting.

"But you really should try and cool it Kimiko," Keiko said, Kimiko exhaled and looked away in response, "try and make some more friends here… You had no friends back home, everybody thought you were weird."

Kimiko instantly retorted, "Good! Let them! I don't care!" And with that, Kimiko stormed off, away from Keiko. They both had gym second period, but Keiko had upset her, so Kimiko went in ahead of her and sat next to a familiar head of red hair.

Jack was ecstatic upon seeing that she was in his gym class. Raimundo soon sat next to her, as did cowboy Clay. Keiko came by later, apologizing to Kimiko and they all sat together.

A girl, obviously older than they, saw them and jokingly said, "Oh, Jackie, you've finally made some freaky friends! How **cuuuute!**" Jack pouted at her. This girl had big red hair, bright green eyes, and pretty large curves. Though, her butt was fairly larger than her boobs; Kimiko still had to admit this girl had a nice figure.

Jack whined, "Leamme alone Wuya! Kimiko's cool! And so are the others!" Wuya laughed mockingly and walked off. A blonde girl followed behind her, she had some fairly nice curves as well, but not like Wuya. This girl had socks that went to her knees on that had cats all over them. Jack practically died upon seeing her. He said that was Ashley, and that he still had scratches on his legs from the last time he had talked to her. She had sicked her cats on him.

Kimiko looked around, observing her surroundings. Wuya was obviously a queen bee. She had tons of other girls around her, and she looked like she was in charge of them. Of course, she couldn't control even herself when someone walked in. It seemed like every girl in the room was suddenly dragged over to whoever was entering the gym.

Keiko looked at Kimiko, who shrugged in confusion. Raimundo groaned, Jack seemed to have another fangasm, and Clay merely said the girls were like flies on a pig. Kimiko watched for the sea of girls to clear and she saw an EXTREMELY handsome boy step out. Keiko nearly fainted. He was practically glowing! Observing all of his features, he looked like an ancient Greek god. He was the picture of sex. The strong square chin, the golden gleaming eyes, the pale, but not too pale complexion, the perfectly toned body he had was obvious even under his uniform, his strong black eyebrows, his thin lips, his messy black hair that had a tinge of green to it and how it fell behind his shoulders in a gorgeous spiky mess, and how he carried himself with a cat-like gracefulness.

Kimiko felt her face heat up. Who was _**that**_? She had never seen anybody who looked quite like that! Even in movies she had never seen such a perfect sex icon! Keiko was fanning herself with her agenda as Kimiko supported her weak friend.

He walked up a couple of steps on the bleachers, but stopped when he noticed Kimiko and Keiko. Kimiko went rigid under his gaze. She felt like she would melt any second, but she kept herself strong. Keiko was dying. Soon Keiko got up and followed the other girls who were following him.

Kimiko was shocked! Keiko! She had just abandoned her! For- well okay, Kimiko couldn't blame her. That boy was definitely worth the desperation. But Kimiko was not going to be one in a crowd. That much is something she refused. She hated blending in, she wanted to stand out. And now that there was this extremely smexeh boy around stealing girls away, Kimiko felt reason to stand out even more.

She would not be another one of the fangirls; Kimiko would stand out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: ****READ**** Okay? Uh, yeah… I got one person who told me this story was good. So, thanks must be given to ****Coraline Slayer****. I thank you for actually doing what I asked. I'm gonna keep writing this story anyhow, cuz you know what, I wanna keep writing it! Honestly, does anybody besides me actually read the author's notes? Geez… **

Stand Out

Chapter 2

Kimiko stared at this boy who looked like the child of the gods, only being broken out of her trance when he stared back. Her face flushed, and she instantly turned away.

She had to ask. "Who's mister popular?" she mumbled to Jack. But Jack wasn't the only one who heard her; Raimundo and Clay heard too. All three of them were staring at her in shock.

Raimundo spoke, "You mean you don't like him?" He asked, gaping at her.

"Well he's cute, but, for all I know he could be a serial killer," Kimiko lied through her teeth. That boy was too perfect to be anything but incredible in every way. Jack, Clay and Raimundo all looked overjoyed to hear this and they all smiled happily at her. Kimiko felt very awkward with them looking at her like that.

And it only got worse. Every other guy in the gym started crowding around her, staring at her like stray dogs stare at a piece of meat. Since she was the only girl not fawning over the hot boy up a few rows from her, all the guys decided to fawn over her. It made her feel sick to see them fall so low as to beg her to go home with them. She felt powerful, sure, but it was disgusting to see them drool like dogs.

"Now I know how _he_ feels," she whispered to Jack, who giggled in response.

The teacher scanned the bleachers, noticing how there was one boy in the center of all the girls, and one girl in the center of all the boys. But the teacher stopped at the girl. "Miss, I'm afraid that-" he began, but was cut off by a voice as smooth as silk.

"She's not in violation of the dress code. There's only two people here in violation of it, and we all know you won't do anything about it as they are both male and we all know that you favor men over women," the voice, obviously male, stated. Kimiko assumed it was one of the guys around her defending their new toy.

But the teacher looked up. He smiled and said, "Ah, Chase, you always had a way with words…" Kimiko followed the teacher's gaze; it went to the inhumanly gorgeous boy. Kimiko felt her face heat up. _He_ was defending her? _Why_? Kimiko quickly realized who the two violating dress code were. Jack, with his jacket, and Clay, with his hat. She smiled happily at her new friends; breaking the rules. She was so proud of herself for making the kind of friends that stood out.

Then one word hit her. The teacher had called that boy Chase. So that was his name? Damn, even his name was cute! Not as absolutely breathtaking as he was, but names were hard to make sound _breathtaking_. Kimiko fidgeted uncomfortably as one boy tried to sniff her hair. Lucky for her, Raimundo had taken a liking to her and snarled viciously at the offender.

Raimundo was like Keiko, he didn't stick out like a sore thumb, but she knew she could trust him with anything. He was different in ways that weren't obvious to the eyes.

The teacher said he would call names and they could go into the locker rooms to try and see if their combinations would work. Kimiko sat next to her friends as, one by one, they got up. Clay was one of the first called, his last name was Bailey. Raimundo was next, being a Pedrosa. Kimiko vaguely heard Keiko's name being called, but she was still kind of mad at her for abandoning her. Keiko's last name started with R. Jack got up next, muttering a weak, 'bye' to her as he did. Kimiko wasn't left alone with the vultures for long however. Her name was called shortly after Jack's.

Kimiko went into the locker room and found Keiko smiling weakly at her. Kimiko only pouted at her friend and looked to her locker. Kimiko wrote her locker combination on her hand, backwards so that she would remember. She put the last digit first, so that anyone who saw her hand thought that was it would get it wrong instantly.

She opened and closed her locker a few times. Then came an irritatingly nasally voice.

"Aww, are you Jackie's new little _friend_?" it was Wuya who spoke to her, and she didn't stop at that, she went on to say, "He would choose a freak like you…"

That was it. She insulted Jack, she insulted her. Kimiko pounced and immediately went for her throat. All the girls around them started screaming, none of them joining in to help stop the fight. Wuya kept hitting Kimiko in the face, but her attacks were getting weaker as Kimiko tightened her grip on her throat.

And then she was pulled away from her. The teacher shouting at both of them, furious. Kimiko didn't really care. She spat out a little blood, Wuya had actually thrown a fair punch at first, but not _that_ good. The teacher snapped at both of them, "Go to the office!" And that was when Kimiko noticed there were boys in the locker room. They had come to see what the commotion was. Kimiko smirked; at least she had given the boys a show. But her face fell when she saw the glowing beauty of Chase staring at her.

'And now I'm going to die,' she thought as a wave of depression hit her. She wanted to crawl into a hole. Chase had seen her attacking Wuya, and to him, it probably looked like it was for no reason. 'Great…' Kimiko thought as she got to her feet.

The teacher spoke again. "Keiko, you go with them. And, just for good measure, Chase, make sure they don't kill each other," he said in an irritated grunt. Kimiko's face paled. He was sending Chase with them? NO! Keiko she could understand, Keiko hadn't left Kimiko's side throughout the whole fight. He had assumed she was in on it.

So, they walked out of the locker room. Kimiko saw Jack, Raimundo, and Clay all standing, looking at them in shock. Kimiko smiled at them and said, "Don't worry; I'll break out before they can put me in the electric chair…" Jack, being the only one who got the inside joke, laughed happily. Raimundo and Clay only chuckled a little.

"Kim, you shouldn't have done that," Keiko said as they walked. Wuya was too busy fawning over Chase to really care that they were there. And once Keiko had finally gotten the message that Kimiko wasn't in the mood to talk, so was she.

Kimiko felt dizzy; walking so close to that beauty was a strain on her character. She tried to remain strong, but his features teased her with every step he took. It just seemed like he got more beautiful with every step. Soon she found herself staring at him in wonderment. _Who_ could've gotten together to make such a strikingly good-looking baby? She needed to know, so she could personally thank them for creating the most handsome man on the planet!

Chase glanced at her, instantly noticing her stare. Kimiko realized it and looked away sheepishly. He probably thought she was some kind of delinquent at this point. What with how she dressed and how she had just attacked Wuya, she couldn't blame him.

She sighed and began humming to herself. She didn't have her headphones on her, something she was regretting; if she was going to the office again, she may as well make it worth her time and break a couple more rules. Soon the humming turned into soft singing. "Open your eyes, take a look at me… Get the picture fixed in your memory…" she sang softly bobbing her head back and forth as she did so.

She felt eyes on her, but Kimiko didn't really care now. Wuya, Chase, and Keiko were all looking at her. Keiko was shaking her head in bewilderment. Didn't Kimiko care that she was making a fool of herself in front of the most gorgeous being alive?

'Okay, so he thinks I'm a delinquent. Good… At least he knows your face now. Not helping! He thinks you're an idiot now! So what? At least he knows who you are! SHUT UP! He's just a boy; boys come and go! Yeah, but he's such an unbelievably SEXY boy! _Still_ not helping!' Kimiko was arguing with herself as she sang.

And then they reached the doors that she had only visited about fifteen minutes earlier. Great.

They all went into the office, Kimiko and Wuya sitting before the principal's desk while Chase and Keiko stood in the back of the office to watch. The principal didn't look too happy to see Kimiko here again after such a short period of time. She was too much like Jack, who was sent to the office at least three times a day because of his jacket.

"So, what happened?" he asked, expecting the blame game to be played instantly.

Wuya opened her mouth, but Kimiko spoke sternly; cutting her off. "I attacked Wuya sir," she stated plainly. Kimiko heard the slap of Keiko's hand against her forehead, but she didn't care.

If she had turned around she would've seen Keiko face-palming herself over and over again and most likely laughed her ass off at it. But she also would've seen Chase raising his eyebrow curiously at her. Most girls threw the blame on each other until they were forced to compromise on a completely false story. But Kimiko just came right out with it, and obviously it was true, from the way Keiko had reacted.

Wuya was gaping at Kimiko in shock. The principal seemed surprised, but he didn't react like Wuya or Keiko. He let Kimiko finish.

"She insulted my new friend, and I overreacted," Kimiko said without any sort of emotion.

The principal turned his gaze on Wuya. "Is this true?" he asked. Wuya couldn't find words, so she nodded her head quickly. He then nodded in response and was about to talk when Kimiko cut him off, as Jack would.

"So, how long are we thinking on detention here? How 'bout for the rest of the week? That sounds good to me. A fair punishment for fighting on the first day, wouldn't you agree Wuya?" Kimiko asked, completely owning the situation. Wuya mumbled an incoherent, 'I guess so'.

The poor principal nodded and said, "Okay, then the rest of the week. You'll go to the gym after all your classes and your teacher will find something for you to do…" He handed Kimiko a little slip of paper and the four of them left the room to head back to gym.

Kimiko started singing again, adding to Keiko's dismay. "All I need is half a thought, a second chance, a second glance to prove… I got whatever it takes…!" Kimiko sang softly. She danced a little as she walked through the halls with them. She was certain Chase was at least a little curious about her, and that was all she needed. She wasn't like the other girls; that was the message she wanted him to get. She was positive he got it too, when he spoke to her.

"Whatter you doing?" he asked, slurring the first to together a little. It was cute the way he did though, and it made Wuya giggle and Keiko's head turn to look at him.

Kimiko opened her eyes the instant he asked. She frowned and spat at him, she regretted doing so afterwards, "Singing, is that okay?" Chase put his hand up in a surrendering fashion and Kimiko realized she had lashed out at him. Now she felt like a jerk, a stupid, mean, jerk. Kimiko muttered, "Sorry…"

Keiko heard it just as well as the others. She knew her friend had a nasty temper; otherwise the fight with Wuya wouldn't have happened. But it was like Kimiko to try and make up for it. She didn't like being cruel to people she cared about; she said it wasn't right to hurt those close to you.

Chase was kind of surprised by her apology, but he replied with his voice of silk, "No big deal…" Wuya sighed and clung to his arm lovingly. Chase was too good to leave alone.

When they got back to gym they had the rest of class to talk. Kimiko didn't really talk that much. She just sat back down with Jack, Rai, and Clay as the vultures leered in over her.

Kimiko thought calmly to herself, 'Well, at least I've got his attention…'


	3. Chapter 3

Stand Out

Chapter 3

The day had dragged on fairly slowly. Kimiko had been in almost every class with Keiko and Jack, Clay and Raimundo being ahead one year were in a few different classes. Kimiko wasn't in their resource however, so she had gone to the library during fifth period. The library was full of girls, but none of them had books. It didn't take her long to see why; Chase had been in the library that period and every girl had been watching him intently. Sure, she wanted to stare at him too, but Kimiko also found the next book in her series and she desperately needed to know who the killer was. So, she settled on stealing an occasional glance at him whenever she could. After resource, Kimiko had lunch with Keiko, Rai, Clay, Jack, and Kimiko had seen Chase in there as well. Unfortunately, she had also seen Wuya and that Ashley girl Jack had told her about. She could see they were following Chase, and it made her laugh to see both of them nearly fall a couple of times because they weren't watching where they were going. Because she had sat with her friends and most of the guys in her gym were older, Kimiko wasn't bothered by the vultures during lunch.

Unfortunately, now it was time for her first detention. Kimiko had told Keiko she could just go home, that she would be alright, but she really wanted her to stay so she had someone to talk to. Kimiko went into the gym and found a bunch of guys all training; the school prided itself on teaching the students martial arts. She groaned, there were girls there, but they were all watching the guys. So, she sat way up on the top row of bleachers and put her headphones in. She bobbed her head and muttered the words softly as detention wore on.

"Alright, anybody who isn't planning on staying for training, time to leave. Detention kids, that means you can go too!" the coach called out. He saw Kimiko supposedly nod her head, so he left the gym.

Kimiko finally opened her eyes and noticed that the huge crowd of girls was gone and it seemed like no one was training any longer. She looked at her MP3 player's clock and saw it read 4:45.

'Damn-it!' she thought as she shoved her headphones into her backpack and tried to hurry don the steps of the bleachers. She got about halfway down before tripping over a step miscalculation and she tumbled down, flipping over herself a couple of times.

She landed on the side of her face, her hands helping to cushion the blow. The gym floor wasn't padded, so she had a feeling there would be a bruise there later.

"Ow," she mumbled, trying to regain her thoughts.

She felt strong, yet gentle hands lifting her shoulders and a voice asked, "Are you okay?"

Kimiko brushed herself off and began to mutter, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I jus-" she stopped dead when she saw who it was that helped her to her feet.

Chase! And boy did he look good! He had obviously been training, his tang top with very thin straps and a very low neck line clinging to his sweaty form told her that. He had on simple black shorts and a plain white tang top on, but he made it look _good_! His body shimmered with a light sheen of sweat and is chest rose and fell at a quick pace from exerting himself earlier. His golden eyes looked both exhilarated and tired, giving them a sparkle of in-between. He looked HOT.

Kimiko felt her face go scarlet; she couldn't think of anything to say to him, so she turned tail and ran out of the gym. Leaving Chase standing in bewilderment; was it something he said?

She ran out the school entrance, panting, not from the running, but from the situation she had just been in. He had _touched_ her! He actually touched her! She felt like such a fan girl, but she didn't care at this point. That boy was driving her **crazy**! Then she thought for a second. He had helped her!

'Well that was sweet of him to be worried,' she thought, 'Wonder if he would've done that if I were fawning over him like the others?' Something inside her told her that he wouldn't. Kimiko smiled happily to herself, Keiko would be _SO_ jealous!

When she got home, Keiko was yelling at her. Asking her if she knew what time it was, asking what had taken her so long, telling her that she was so worried. Kimiko smiled wickedly at her.

"What?" Keiko asked, knowing all to well that face meant Kimiko had something against her.

Kimiko put up one hand in a 'oh nothing' fashion and said, "I fell down the bleachers when it was time to go." Keiko only nodded, obviously waiting for her to get to the evil part of her story. "And guess who helped make sure I was okay? Well, actually, he was the only one who made sure I was okay…" Kimiko asked, but then noted calmly.

Keiko thought for a minute, but couldn't come up with anyone. "Who?" she asked finally.

"Chase," Kimiko said in a snake-like hiss. Keiko squealed and immediately began beating her with the nearest pillow.

"What happened! Tell me! Tell me, tell me, TELL ME!" Keiko demanded, still squealing. Kimiko laughed happily as her friend continued to try and beat it out of her.

"My lips are sealed!" she yelled happily. Keiko squealed no, but Kimiko wouldn't tell her anything else. The two friends continued with their one-sided pillow fight for a little while longer before they made dumplings for dinner.

Kimiko made the best dumplings, that's why Keiko had her make a ton extra so they could have them for lunch at school tomorrow. Kimiko didn't disapprove of her suggestion, she made two extra batched and they both wrapped some up for school.

**The next day… I'm gonna say it's a Thursday… that cool? Cool…**

Kimiko and Keiko walked to school again and they each listened to Stand Out. Kimiko had insisted that Keiko join her in listening to it today. Kimiko sang along quietly, Keiko bobbed her head gently in time to the song.

When they reached the front gates, Kimiko shoved her headphones into her backpack. Today, it was a blue bunny head backpack. Today was her blue day. She had blue striped stockings on under her skirt, she had blue wrist bands on, she had blue lipstick on, she was wearing a blue necklace, and to top it off, she put blue eye shadow on. She had left her hair down today; she felt the blue was enough.

And once again, guys were staring and girls were snickering. Yup, this was probably going to become the norm for her. So, she may as well get used to the differences in how people viewed her. As they walked Kimiko noticed a familiar head of spiky red hair ahead of them. She ran up to Jack, throwing er arm around his skinny shoulders and he nearly jumped out of his skin. But when he saw it was her, he laughed happily at the sneak attack.

First period went by beautifully. Kimiko had corrected the teacher's spelling twice and Jack had accidentally forgotten to turn off his phone. So 'Let the bodies hit the floor' blared out when his aunt called from America. He got sent to the office, Kimiko offered to walk him. He got detention that day and Kimiko asked if he could join her at the gym for detention. It was approved, so now she'd have a 'partner in crime' as she called it. Jack loved her prison references and had said he hoped the warden would let him out on good behavior. Kimiko told him not to count on it.

Gym came, and Kimiko once again got to see Chase in his tang top and shorts. Why did he have to be so fricking _gorgeous_! They did a bunch of warm up exercises; Kimiko noticed that she and Keiko were the only girls really trying at all. The others didn't seem to care. The guys all cared, well, except Jack. He said gm wasn't his forte, so he hardly tried to do well.

Then the teacher dragged out several padded mats and yelled to his class, "This week we're doing the martial arts unit! So, I would like a volunteer pair to show the class exactly what I mean!" He searched through the kids and said, "Chase, you'll be the male in the demonstration." He began looking for a girl to put up there.

Kimiko thought repeatedly, 'Don't say my name. Don't say my name. Don't say my name. Don't say it!'

The teacher yelled finally, "Kimiko, why don't you show the girls?"

'DAMN-IT!' she thought ferociously. If she could've run away right then and there, she would have. But the teacher was waiting patiently for her to come up. Chase was standing on the padded mat, watching her expectantly. He knew that she knew how to fight, so he expected her to be a slightly challenging opponent. At least, Wuya's still bruised neck told him so.

Kimiko walked up slowly and assumed the appropriate fighting stance. The girls were all cheering for Chase, the guys were all cheering for Kimiko. She couldn't pick Keiko's voice out of the crowd, so she had a feeling that Keiko didn't know who to root for.

'Fine by me,' Kimiko thought as they waited for the teacher's whistle to begin. The ear-piercing whistle came and Chase struck. Kimiko barely blocked it, and she continued to barely defend herself as he ruthlessly struck at her. Kimiko tried to distract herself from his beauty as she fought him. She tried to picture Wuya standing there. Immediately she felt confidence and she began to strike back.

Chase seemed surprised by how hard she lashed out at him. He had seen her face turn red the other day, he knew she at least liked him. But right now it seemed like she was trying to kill him! So, Chase decided not to hold back any longer.

He struck her collarbone and swept-kicked her under her feet. Kimiko lost her balance and fell, but she grabbed at the nearest thing, dragging it down with her. She had grabbed Chase's tang top and pulled him down with her.

The girls all cheered for Chase and yelled that he had won and Kimiko had just tried to make it look like a draw. The guys were yelling that Chase had cheated and Kimiko deserved a rematch.

Kimiko's head had hit the mat and it did actually hurt a little. The wind had been knocked out of her when her back landed flat on the mat. She was trying to regain her lost breath when she heard a soft grumble above her.

"Ouch," Chase muttered, rubbing his head. Their heads had smacked against each other, and Kimiko just felt the sting from the impact. She opened her eyes to see something she had only seen in her dreams so far. Chase was above her, slightly sweaty, and panting from exhaustion. Yes her dreams were dirty, but she couldn't help that.

As soon as she saw him above her, Kimiko scooted away from him and off the mat. Chase had to put his hand down to hold himself up when she did, as his body had been getting support from hers. He had pretty much been laying on her after they fell down, yet the only one who seemed to notice that fact was Kimiko.

She rubbed her head where his forehead had smacked her own. It was sore. "that's gonna bruise," Kimiko grumbled angrily. Her face already had the small bruise from Wuya's punch and had a rather large bruise from when she fell down the bleachers, but now she was going to have a bruise on her forehead, too! What else was going to hit her face? A truck?

Kimiko picked herself up, the teacher had gone to help Chase instead of her. Only the second day and Kimiko was learning how sexist her coach was. Kimiko rubbed her sore back and groaned as she cracked t, popping her stiffening spine. She made her way back over to Jack, Rai, and Clay.

"You did really good Kim!" Jack said, patting her on the back. Kimiko flinched when he did and he muttered a weak, 'sorry'.

The teacher turned to the class. "Would anyone else like to volunteer? We have three mats, so six of you can practice at a time, if you like." he addressed everyone. Several guys climbed down, Raimundo and Clay included; no girls climbed down. Go figure.

If she weren't so sore, Kimiko would've gone back down and challenged Wuya to a real fight. But, her back was telling her that wasn't a good idea, so she sat next to Jack.

Chase walked up to the bleachers, going to go sit, but he stopped in front of Kimiko and Jack.

"Sorry about that," he muttered quietly to her. Kimiko blinked a few times. What was he apologizing for? She was the one who pulled him to the floor. But before she could argue that fact with him, Chase had walked up to his spot on the bleachers.

The rest of gym went by without any real incident. One kid pulled a muscle in his leg, but other than that, gym was totally normal.

The rest of the day was pretty dull as well. Although, resource was interesting. Kimiko went to the library again, and once again the god on earth Chase was there as well. Kimiko forgot her dumplings in her locker. She realized that a little over halfway through the period, so she went to go to her locker.

As she headed there, she didn't realize someone was walking behind her. She was singing softly to herself, but even if she were paying attention, she wouldn't have noticed. The person down the hall was silent as a cat.

She opened her locker and put her book back inside. She grabbed her dumplings out of her locker and just as she reached to close it, she heard the soft click of another locker opening. She perked up and turned to where the noise originated.

Her body practically went numb when she saw Chase standing across from her. His locker was in her hallway? How had she not noticed? She then noticed he was looking at her. And when he saw that she noticed, he smiled a little at her.

Kimiko went to close her locker, but went about it at the wrong angle and dropped all her stuff on the ground in the process of closing it.

She looked down and groaned, "Of course that would happen…" she sighed and knelt to start picking up her belongings. When she reached for her dumplings, she found they weren't there.

Looking up, she saw Chase holding them. He smiled and offered them to her, but she panicked.

Once again, Kimiko started to run away. But he called after her.

"Wait, isn't this yours?" he asked, following her.

Kimiko yelled over her shoulder, "You can keep 'em!" and with that, she turned the corner and sprinted down the adjacent hallway.

Chase stood in shock. Why did she seem so afraid of him? Was she still mad about gym? He had apologized for knocking her down, so maybe she felt bad for dragging him down. He didn't really care that it had happened, but he found it weird how she kept running away from him.

He looked at the peculiar object in his hands. Kimiko had wrapped the dumplings as she would in Japan, so that they resembled a box made of paper. Chase noticed a label on it.

"Dumplings," he read aloud. Was this her lunch? Now he felt kind of bad that he was taking her lunch from her. He remembered seeing her in his lunch the other day, so he decided to give them back to her before lunch started.

Kimiko was heading to the cafeteria. The bell had just gone off, signaling the start of sixth period. She assumed she was the first one to get there, but she stopped dead when she saw Chase standing outside the cafeteria doors.

She inhaled deeply, he hadn't noticed her yet. Maybe she could sneak inside. A group of kids started heading inside and Kimiko quickly melted into the group.

Problem? She was the only one wearing anything besides the uniform! She stuck out no matter what she did!

He saw her instantly. He reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder. The girls in the group immediately looked like they were plotting her murder. And Kimiko wished they would kill her.

She tried to pull away from him, and actually succeeded. But he followed her.

"Hey, wait," he said, putting his hand on her again. Kimiko turned quickly and gave him a look that asked, 'what do you want then?'. She folded her arms across her chest and waited. Chase offered the dumplings to her again. He asked, "These are yours, right? You wanted them back, right?"

Kimiko blinked a few times, but she found her voice. "I said you could keep 'em… Keiko was the one who wanted the dumplings today, and she already has her own batch…" Chase stared at her.

He then asked, "I can really have these? Are-are you sure?" Kimiko only nodded and turned and walked to the lunch line. Chase watched after her. She certainly was an odd one, but, he didn't really want to press his luck any further. She sounded mad when he had talked to her just then, she decided not to follow her anymore.

Kimiko sat at the table and Keiko immediately asked, "Kim, did you throw out the dumplings?"

She groaned, "No… I accidentally handed them over to someone…"

"Who?" Keiko asked. The guys were heading over to the table. So Kimiko merely pointed her finger and twitched her head in the same direction of her point.

Keiko followed her friend's finger. Her gaze landed upon chase, who was currently about to try the dumplings. Keiko's jaw flopped open and she turned to Kimiko in shock.

"Why would you do that?" Keiko asked, kind of hurt that Kimiko didn't give her the dumplings.

Kimiko rubbed her forehead. "I dunno… I just panicked…! I dropped 'em and he picked 'em up and offered them to me and I… I just… I said he could have 'em…" Kimiko said as Jack sat next to her. Keiko grumbled angrily, but she turned her gaze to Chase to see how he reacted to Kimiko's delicacies that were the dumplings. Kimiko looked to him as well, following Keiko's curious gaze.

Chase seemed a little cautious to eat it. Maybe they were poisoned, or drugged! How would he know? But as soon as he tasted it, he knew he'd never eat anything like this again. It was incredible! He immediately looked to Kimiko's table and saw she was watching him. He smiled at her and she went red and looked away quickly.

Keiko smiled cheerfully at Kimiko. But Kimiko was trying to hide her face. Jack, Rai, and Clay looked from Kimiko to Keiko, completely confused. They had no idea what was going on, to them it looked like Kimiko had just suddenly got really depressed.

Jack spoke to her, "Kim? You okay?"

She groaned a couple of times, rubbing her head before she got up and said with a pained expression, "I don't feel so good…" And with that Kimiko ran to the bathroom outside the cafeteria. Keiko got up and quickly followed after her friend.

Jack looked at Raimundo and Clay, they both shrugged. None of them had any idea what was wrong.

"Maybe she got food poisoning," Clay suggested. Kimiko had hardly eaten anything, so they figured that could be it. She must've thought the food tasted funny and then her stomach realized it was bad.

Raimundo looked at his food. "I hope my food's not bad like hers was," he said, gently poking at his lunch.

Chase had seen her run out of the cafeteria. Why did she act like that around him? Was there something wrong with him? He was curious about this new girl. He wanted to get to know her now. He was determined to find out everything about the girl who refused to fawn over him.


	4. Apology

I apologize for my crappy spelling… I keep trying to go back and find all of my errors… I see them AFTER I upload the chapters…

In chapter one, I forgot to type 'you' a couple of times. I also spelled and wrong.

In chapter two, I actually think I did okay…

Oh, in chapter one, I forgot a word in the song. She said, "If I could make you stop and take a look at me." I forgot you, I think… But yeah…

Chapter three. Oh Chapter Three! That one was a disaster! I have every example of where I messed up! I HAVE A LIST!

- I forgot to capitalize Chase at one point.

- I wrote gm instead of gym at one point

-I wrote she when Chase decided to stop following Kimiko. I meant so he…

-When Kimiko was heading down the stairs and fell, I wrote don… dumb…

-I wrote batched, instead of batches… with the dumplings…

-I forgot the h in her when Kimiko scared Jack…

-I forgot to capitalize That's when Kimiko said 'that's gonna bruise'

-I forgot the I in it… Stupid… so it was just a t…

Yeah, I suck at typing. Wouldn't be surprised if this had a typo… I SUCK AT TYPING! Yes, we all learned how to type back in elementary school, but I can't type… I really can't! I don't type like everyone else! I do the pecking thing… you know…

I APOLOGIZE!


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey! I'm gonna try and not spell anything too poorly today! Let's hope it works out!**

**Keiko: Why not just reread what you wrote before posting it?**

**That's what I do! And I still missed, like, EVERYTHING!**

Stand Out

Chapter 4

Horribly pained gurgling noises could be heard inside the girls' bathroom. Kimiko threw up at least five times. She felt like she was going to pass out. Chase had smiled at her differently; he had never looked so… seductively at her! She felt light-headed.

Keiko walked her to the nurse. They checked her out, but Kimiko didn't seem to have any problems. Though, when she continued to vomit, the nurse insisted that she go home and drink some ginger-ale. The nurse told Keiko to get all of her homework for her and bring it back; that would be easy! They were in all of the same classes for the rest of the day!

So, Kimiko trudged home, her stomach still telling her that Chase had smiled at her. She was sure she'd have questions from Jack tomorrow. So her excuse would be that she got food poisoning. She was sure that was what he was thinking already.

Kimiko got home and promptly grabbed a ginger-ale and plopped herself down on the couch; a trash bin not too far away. Lest her insides decided they needed to empty themselves again.

But, lucky for her, her stomach settled as soon as she drank the ginger-ale. 'Nurses really know what they're doing,' she thought aimlessly as she sipped her ginger-ale.

She thought of Jack once more. Looks like she wasn't going to be his partner in crime today after all. Would they make her make up a detention because she got sick? She hoped not…

After a few hours, Kimiko heard the familiar click of the front door being opened. Keiko called out to her and Kimiko replied groggily that she was on the couch.

Keiko walked up to her and dropped several papers next to her on the couch. "There's the homework," she grumbled as she rubbed her shoulders.

"What do the guys think happened to me?" Kimiko asked. Keiko smiled weakly at her.

"Uh, well…" she began. Kimiko sat up a little. Something happened, she could tell. Keiko rubbed her neck and said, "Rai, Jack, and Clay think you got food poisoning…"

Kimiko nodded and mumbled, "Good… What else…?"

Keiko began to blush and she plopped down on the floor in front of her, almost squealing, "Chase asked me what happened to you!" she looked overjoyed, but Kimiko's face fell instantly.

"What'd you tell 'im?" she asked, her voice full of concern.

Keiko blinked and said, "Huh? Oh, I just said I was pretty sure you got food poisoning. The guys all said that's what they thought, considering you didn't eat much. They figured you thought it tasted funny and then it made you sick."

"H-how did he react? Did he buy it?" Kimiko asked, her voice shaking.

"Seemed like it. He nodded and walked back to his table after that…" Keiko said, still looking too happy for Kimiko's tastes. "Oh, and he wanted me to let you know that he liked the dumplings!" Keiko added suddenly. Kimiko smiled weakly at that; that was why she had gotten sick!

Keiko was rambling on and on about how Chase had talked to her and how good he looked and how nice he smelled, so Kimiko decided it'd be best to just do her homework.

**It's Friday! Friday! Gotta go kill that stupid girl on Friday! Be right back!**

Kimiko was dancing, once again, to her favorite song, Stand Out. She didn't care how old the song was, she loved it! "I'm driven by the rhythm like the beat of a heart… And I won't stop until I start… to…" her singing was interrupted by a Keiko elbowing her in the gut.

Kimiko swatted her arm away and put her headphones into her green and purple dog backpack. Today she had knee-high purple socks on, a green choker on her neck, purple and green arm bands on, and her hair was held up with purple and green hair-ties. It was multicolor Friday!

Jack noticed them and hurried over. He immediately asked Kimiko if she was okay now, asking if it really was food poisoning. Kimiko said it was and apologized for missing their detention together yesterday.

Jack laughed. "I kept calling it your jail break," he said with a grin. That made her laugh hysterically.

"Hey, there's my favorite delinquent!" Raimundo greeted her when they got inside the building. Once again, Kimiko found herself laughing. Clay gave Kimiko a hearty pat on the back and nearly knocked her over, but she only laughed at that again. Her friends knew just how to make her laugh!

Kimiko got to her locker and just as she opened it a hand came out and pushed it so it was almost closed again. Kimiko turned furious, expecting Raimundo to be standing there pulling a prank on her. But to her dismay, it was a female hand. And she recognized the nearly orange skin tone instantly to be Wuya.

"What happened to you yesterday, precious?" she asked with a sneer, "Jackie seemed like a lost dog in his gym detention without you."

Kimiko scowled at her and thrust her locker from her grip and opened it fully. She was determined not to respond to this witch. Although, witch would be putting it a little mildly.

"What's the matter? Afraid I'll bite?" Wuya asked, her voice practically cackling with each word.

Kimiko retorted, "No, I'm afraid I'll get rabies when you actually _do_ bite!"

Wuya was preparing to hit her as she growled, "Why you little-" But Wuya never got the chance to hit Kimiko. Chase had just gotten to his locker when she was reeling back to punch her. Wuya stopped dead and immediately floated over to him to cling from his arm.

Oh how Kimiko wished she could do that. Chase kept shaking Wuya off his arm angrily, but she kept grabbing back onto it. This made Kimiko laugh.

"Who's a lost dog now?" she asked, putting her backpack in her locker. Wuya glared daggers at her. Kimiko only smirked wickedly. "C'mon little doggie, I hear you barkin', now let's see you bite," she tempted death.

That was it. Wuya was on her instantly. She was trying to claw at Kimiko's eyes, but Kimiko had one strategy that she knew Wuya would lose to. Kimiko grabbed her shoulders and pulled her in and whispered into her ear.

"Now is _this_ any way to behave in front of Chase?" she asked, her voice dripping with venom. It was right after the words left her mouth that Chase pulled them apart. They had only fought for a few seconds, but Kimiko knew she had won. Wuya's pale face told her that.

Kimiko laughed happily and began to walk off to class. She felt a hand on her shoulder; she knew it wasn't Wuya's hand, it was much to large to be Wuya's petite little limb. Kimiko realized who it as after a few milliseconds. Chase. She did _not_ want to deal with him interrogating her about yesterday right now! She jerked her shoulder out of his grip and continued to walk away.

Unfortunately, he followed. "Wait," he said calmly as he put his hand on her shoulder again.

But, once again, Kimiko jerked her shoulder away and she grumbled to him, "Look, I have to get to class… I'm gonna be late…"

Chase stood in the hall, watching her walk away. Why did she hate him so much? He really didn't understand girls…

Kimiko had once again been sent to the office for her clothes, but Jack and Clay were sent with her this time. 'Well, at least I'm making progress with the teacher,' she thought as they walked down the hall to the office.

Upon entering the office, Kimiko felt like she was going to die. Chase was in there, waiting to be let into the principal's actual office. 'Kill me now, just kill me now!' she thought, hoping the gods would answer her. Nothing. 'Damn you and your sense of fricking irony! This is **not funny**!' she thought, viciously yelling at the gods for constantly putting her somewhere with Chase.

There were four chairs in the secretary's office area, so they all decided to sit down. Clay and Jack sat first, leaving the spot right beside Chase as the only open seat. She mentally cursed the gods again. She sat down next to him, and did her very best to not look at him.

"You alright? I saw you run out of the cafeteria yesterday," his silky smooth voice addressed her.

Kimiko felt her back stiffen up and she replied, coughing once before doing so, "I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning… but the nurse couldn't really tell…" Chase nodded silently. Kimiko was thankful when the principal opened his door.

He groaned when he saw the three of them. He said, annoyed, "Kimiko, you can leave, Clay and Jack you both need to put away those clothes… Although, why do I bother? Seems like Jack never gets rid of his jacket…" Jack yelled out a 'I never part with my jacket' and Clay said it was the same for him with his hat. The principal gave up. He said Chase could come inside and Chase got up.

Kimiko left before he could say anything else to her. She just wanted one moment of peace! Was that too much to ask?

Apparently it was as that Ashley girl was walking down the hall towards them. Jack jumped behind Clay and Kimiko.

The blonde girl stopped and said to them, "Oh, how cute, momma and daddy protecting little Jackie…"

Kimiko snapped at her, "Shut up, Jack just doesn't want to get your fleas." Ashley was seething at Kimiko after that comment. It was obvious this girl liked cats, everything she wore extra had cats on it! She surprisingly didn't have more than a few cat hairs on her clothes however. Weird.

They walked back to class and continued with the boring lesson. After it was over they all walked to gym. When she got inside Kimiko challenged Wuya.

"Wanna finish what we started this morning?" she asked, her voce like a knife, ready to stab.

Wuya hissed in response, "You're on."

Getting out to the actual gym, the teacher asked if there was a volunteer pair to go first. Wuya and Kimiko said they wanted to spar. Everyone was shocked to see Wuya volunteering, but their fight was clear in their minds, so they assumed it was Wuya's time to get payback. Her neck was still pretty bruised, but Kimiko's bruise from her punch was nearly gone. If you judged by that, you would have realized Kimiko was going to win instantly.

They both waited for the teacher's whistle and immediately began lashing out at each other. Kimiko was able to land a fairly large amount more hits than Wuya, but Wuya was able to hold her own.

"Not bad, for a queen be," Kimiko said as she swung a fist at her.

Wuya dodged and grumbled, "Not bad, for a lesbo." Kimiko's eyes widened.

"What? I'm not… I mean, I don't have anything against them, but I'm not…" Kimiko blurted as Wuya tried to strike her in the face.

Wuya snickered. "Yeah right, then if you're not, how come you seem oblivious to Chase's extraordinary beauty?" she asked with a wicked smirk.

And then Kimiko pinned her. She glared down into Wuya's green eyes and hissed darkly, "I'm not." With that, Kimiko got to her feet and walked over to Jack. She rolled her shoulder a couple of times until it cracked and sat down.

Jack patted her on the back, saying she was the greatest girl he'd ever met. Raimundo agreed and Clay said he needed to see her wrestle a pig and she would be for him too. That made her laugh.

Keiko was sitting up near Chase, watching Kimiko laugh. She was happy that Kimiko had made some more friends, but Keiko wasn't sure if she'd be able to tell her that she and Wuya and Ashley were becoming pretty good friends. Sure they were mean to Kimiko, but that was because Kimiko was pretty and she was different. And guys noticed her, even Chase. And he had seemed so unresponsive to girls! But Kimiko obviously intrigued him, Keiko could see him staring at her.

She heard Chase whisper something to himself. She didn't catch all of it, but she thought she heard Jack's name and the word lucky. Was Chase saying Jack was lucky to be so close to Kimiko? Keiko hoped not. Yeah, she and Kimiko were good friends, but she kind of wanted to win Chase over herself.

Gym ended and Kimiko went into the locker room in a jovial mood. Jack was hilarious! He had told her a story of how he made a robot cat and sent it to Ashley's house and she hadn't realized it was fake until it's batteries died! Kimiko found that extremely amusing.

She got to her locker, but Wuya slammed her hand on it and closed it. "What did you mean earlier?" she asked, genuinely curious, but she had a lot of hate in her tone when she asked.

Kimiko sighed, "I'm not immune to Chase, Wuya. I like him just as much as you do… I just… don't want to be just some girl in a crowd… I hate feeling like I'm just some person in a group and nobody knows who I am…" Wuya blinked in shock a few times.

She went back to her own locker and whispered, "Sorry I called you a… well, you know... Sorry." Kimiko smiled weakly at her apology. She knew Wuya would still be cruel to her as long as Chase knew exactly who she was. It was a girls' dominance thing. Nobody could really help that. Girls fought over guys, it was just a fact of life.

Kimiko went through all her classes normally. Resource came, and she really didn't feel like dealing with another awkward situation with Chase in the library. So she got a pass and pretty much just walked through the halls. She went to her locker and for some reason it refused to open.

"Aw come on!" she grumbled as she tried and failed to get the damn thing open. "Why would you do this now?" she yelled at her locker.

A voice chuckled behind her, "Easy, it's just because your locker neighbor has too much inside their locker. Here, you just have to apply force in the right place." she felt someone's body against her back and she saw arms go around her body to press firmly on the opposite side of her locker and pull the door open.

'Please don't be Chase. Please don't be Chase. Please don't be Chase,' she thought as she turned around to thank the person who helped her.

Guess who it was! Chase. 'DAMN YOU FRICKING GODS!' she screamed in her head, 'WHY ARE YOU PICKIN ON ME?'

Chase smiled warmly at her and Kimiko muttered a soft 'thank you'. She quickly turned to get her stuff out of her locker. Then she saw one of his arms reach out and hold her backpack. That was too much. Invading her personal space was something she would not stand by and watch happen!

She slapped his hand away and turned on him. "Hey, hey! You can't go through people's stuff!" she snapped at him.

Chase blinked a few times. Once again she was yelling at him. What was he doing wrong? He spoke softly, "Wasn't your book bag a cat the other day? And wasn't it blue?"

Kimiko frowned. "No! It was a bunny head, thank you!" she said as she turned to grab her history book.

"Cat, bunny, same difference," he grumbled, leaning against the locker next to hers. Kimiko noticed the wall of her locker bulge when he leaned on the one next to hers. He wasn't kidding when he said her locker neighbor had too much stuff in it!

Kimiko muttered angrily, "Liked it better when I had my locker on the end of the hall in Japan…" She hardly ever missed that school, but she did miss her old locker on the end of the hall and right near the front doors. It had been everyone's dream locker. She wondered who had it now.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Chase. "-should be fun…" that was all she caught.

"Huh?" she turned to him, looking lost.

"I was saying that your detention today should be fun…" he said, looking at her for a brief moment before fiddling with the lock on the locker next to hers.

"Why?" she asked, getting to her feet. Chase smiled.

"I've been given permission to give lessons on martial arts," he said, letting go of the lock, "Your buddy… uh.. Ray something…?" Kimiko cut in and said Raimundo, "Right. Well, he asked me if I'd be willing to teach him a few tricks… And other guys heard him ask and they wanted lessons too, so today is the first time I'll actually be considered a teacher…"

"Is that why you were in the office this morning?" Kimiko asked, not realizing how much her voice shook with each word.

Chase noticed her shaky voice and he nodded in response to her question. He then blew the moment they were having and asked, "You okay? You sound sick…"

Kimiko went red. Had she really given away how nervous she was? 'Crap!' she thought as she quickly made up an excuse to leave.

"Um, I gotta go… Keiko and I were gonna meet outside her classroom… so I uh…" Kimiko 's voice trailed off as she was already hurrying down the hallway.

Chase frowned as he watched her hurry away from him. He really didn't understand girls. He could tell she liked him, so why wasn't she trying anything? Wuya would've tried to kiss him at least ten times in those few moments they had been talking. But this girl just seemed terrified of getting close to him. After wondering why she wasn't trying to get him to fall for her Chase wondered why he cared so much. He didn't want her to try, did he? That would be stupid. She was just a girl. And she was just like all the rest of them. No she wasn't, she hadn't tried to drug him with the date-rape pill once yet! He had even eaten food she made herself and it hadn't been drugged. Wuya and Ashley had tried to slip the drug into his food before. Why wasn't she?

He mentally scolded himself for asking that in such a way that made it sound like he wanted her to drug him and walked off toward the cafeteria.

**What am I writing? I swear this story has caused me to take the point of view of a teenage boy! NO! What is this story doing to my brainz?**


	6. Chapter 5

Stand Out

Chapter 5

Kimiko sat at the table and waited, well not patiently, she was in a hurry to get her question answered. She tapped her fingers on the table repeatedly as she waited for Raimundo to get to the table. Once he got there she immediately threw the question at him.

"When did you ask Chase to train you in martial arts?" she asked, nearly yelling, but she caught herself.

Everyone blinked, but Raimundo sighed. "The first day you got here, actually… I was really impressed that he was able to take you down, I mean… You almost _killed_ Wuya!" he said, sitting down. "I didn't think it would bother you, and besides I'm not the-"

"Not the only one, I know, I know," Kimiko finished for him. Rai looked at her curiously.

"How'd you find out? The only one who knew was Clay cuz he heard me ask," he asked.

Kimiko frowned and said calmly, "I heard it straight from the horse's mouth."

Rai blinked, but Keiko spoke, "Chase told you?" Kimiko nodded, her face void of emotion.

"Seemed like he thought it was funny how I'd get to watch him teach you guys during my detention today… Maybe he plans on knocking you down a few times to make you look bad…" she grumbled, not really meaning it. Jack could tell she wasn't serious and he informed the Raimundo that thought she was serious.

Kimiko poked at her food; not really hungry. The others thought it was because of yesterday.

"Aw c'mon Kim, I'm sure this food isn't poisoned like yesterday," Rai said, trying to convince her.

"I know," Kimiko muttered as she tried to eat.

The day went by rather slowly. All of her teachers seemed to have a lecture ready for her. It annoyed her to have to listen to them all drawl on and on about pointless crap none of them cared about. She just wanted to get her detention over with so she go home for the weekend.

The gym was rather full today. Apparently the girls found out about Chase teaching kids and they wanted to watch him beat up some other boys. It sickened her to see so many girls so intent on seeing Chase hurt someone. She heard their conversations. One girl hoped he'd break someone's arm. That was just wrong. Kimiko wanted to beat her senseless.

Kimiko sat in the middle of the bleachers and waved to Raimundo. She pulled out her headphones. Today, she felt like listening to another song by the guy who wrote Stand Out, so she began playing Eye To Eye.

"Got. Myself a notion… One. I know that you'll understand… Maybe love is the reason why… seein' it eye to eye…" she sang softly as the music played. She loved this guy's voice. But Stand Out was still her favorite of his. "Find we're never too far apart…"

Kimiko felt someone poke her forehead. She opened her blue eyes to be met with a pair of emerald green ones. She barely stopped herself from screaming, but she didn't stop herself from falling over. Raimundo laughed hysterically as she rubbed the back of her head and picked herself up.

"Very funny," she grumbled, "What do you want?" She was pissed that he had knocked her down.

Rai laughed and said, "Detention's over… Thought you should know. Chase said last time you stayed til 5 and then you fell down the bleachers."

Kimiko groaned. 'I'll have to hit him for that later,' she thought angrily. She got to her feet. Raimundo was already walking away, so she didn't get the chance to slap his head for knocking her down and scaring her like that.

Kimiko stopped herself for a second. She looked at the bleachers and noticed her backpack wasn't there. "Did I leave it in my locker?" she muttered as she went to look for it. Nope, not in her locker. She checked all her classrooms and couldn't find it. Now it was getting late. She needed her backpack. She found it in the lost and found box in the principal's office. She wondered if she had dropped it on her way to detention. But she shook herself to focus. It was almost seven! Keiko was probably having a heart attack!

She called the house on her cellphone. "Keiko, sorry… I lost my backpack… Had to go looking for it… I know, I know, I'm sorry… I'll be home soon…" she muttered as Keiko yelled at her. She clicked her phone shut and pushed the front door open. She glanced at her watch. 7:38.

"Figures…" she grumbled as she walked into someone's chest. Well, she stopped herself before she walked into them, but they stayed firmly where they were.

It was a man, probably in his late thirties. He smiled at her and the smell of alchohol on him made Kimiko nauseous. His grin widened when she stepped back a couple of steps.

"Well look at this, a little mouse lost her way," he said, drunkenly.

Kimiko blinked and shook her head swiftly. "No, I'm not lost, I'm just going home…"

He leaned in closer to her. "How 'bout you come home with me?" he asked, his breath made Kimiko want to vomit.

"Leave me alone." she said angrily. But this man was persistent. He began prodding at her skirt, trying to lift it up. Kimiko kept hitting his hands away, but he was so drunk his limbs had a numbness to them. She could see his hands bruising, but he wouldn't leave her alone. She tried getting him away from her, but he weighed a fair bit more than she did. He then tried to pull her skirt down.

Kimiko suddenly felt an arm around her shoulder and a soft, but intimidating voice said, "Sorry I'm late sweetheart. Hope I didn't make you wait too long."

Kimiko looked up instantly and saw Chase was the one holding her. The man barked at him, "Hey, back off! We're busy here!"

Chase raised a eyebrow at him. "Oh really?" he whispered viciously.

Kimiko didn't really see it, but all of a sudden Chase's fist made contact with the man's face and he was sent back several feet as his nose gushed blood. The man sat up, clutching it and he immediately scurried away.

She looked at Chase. His fist had the man's blood on it, and his fingers shook slightly. His face seemed somewhat demonic as he watched that man run away. But his features immediately softened and he asked her, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine…" she whispered, "Thank you…"

Chase smiled gently at her and said, "You shouldn't go home so late on a Friday night… Especially not alone… This is when the perverts start coming out looking for kids having a fun night out…"

She looked at him as he said this. She nodded when he finished and slowly pulled herself from his grip. But he pulled her back to him.

"What did I just say?" he asked, his voice a silky purr, "Don't go home alone on Friday nights…" Kimiko nodded silently and he asked, "So, which way? I'll be your escort tonight, kay?" She only nodded and mumbled a soft 'this way'.

She hardly spoke a word as he walked with her. He didn't take his arm off her the whole time either. Kimiko felt her face getting redder by the minute.

They finally reached her house. Chase let go of her, but Kimiko really wished he would hold on forever. He smiled and turned to leave.

"Wo- would you like to come inside for a little bit?" she blurted out before she really thought about what she was saying.

He looked at her. "Would that be alright with you?" he asked, his words flowing into each other like water.

Kimiko inhaled sharply and quickly said, "It's the least I can do for you for helping me." Chase smiled gently at her and walked to her side. She went to the door and said one thing to him, "Just, be warned that Keiko might have a heart attack upon seeing you." Chase chuckled at that.

"Noted," he said as she pushed the door open. Kimiko let him in first and closed the door softly behind him.

"**Where have you been?**" Keiko screeched. She was about to say more, but stopped when she saw Chase. She looked to Kimiko for help.

Kimiko coughed nervously and said softly, "Keiko, um… On my way back a drunken man tried to rape me… Um…" she coughed again, "And… Chase helped me… so he's… staying here for a little while…"

Keiko went up and sniffed Kimiko. She smelled the alchohol on her and made a 'blech' sound. Chase chuckled at the test to see if Kimiko was telling the truth. But Keiko knew after that every word Kimiko said was true. So they all went inside and Keiko spoke again.

"So are we still gonna do our old Disney movie night?" she asked, obviously addressing Kimiko. Keiko was already clinging to Chase, so Kimiko was able to calm herself down.

Kimiko blinked at the question. "Of course we are, whaddidya think?"

Keiko blinked, "Well I thought that since Chase was here…"

Chase interjected, "I don't mind watching old Disney movies. So long as we don't watch Snow White…" they both looked at him curiously and he clarified, "I thought she had an extremely irritating voice."

Kimiko scoffed. "Least I'm not the only one…" she muttered. Keiko pouted at her friend; Snow White was one of her favorites!

After a little deliberation, they all decided on starting with The Lion King. Kimiko insisted they watch A Goofy Movie afterwards.

"You just like that movie cuz you think Max's voice is hot!" Keiko said, hitting her with a pillow.

"Hey! Do not!" Kimiko yelled, trying to conceal her blush from Chase while swatting the pillow away. Chase only smiled at them as Keiko hit Kimiko with a pillow. Kimiko finally managed to put the DVD in and she hurried to change into more comfortable clothes.

She came back wearing a loose turquoise dress and knee-high fluffy socks. She had her hair up in pigtails now and she had taken off any make up she had been wearing earlier. Chase thought she looked cuter without her uniform. It made her look older than she really was. This gave her a look of innocence.

Chase actually had a lot of fun wit them. Aside from occasionally getting whacked by a pillow and te fact that Kimiko still seemed afraid to talk to him, it was a really enjoyable evening. But Kimiko still wouldn't really talk to him. He wanted her to talk to him. Keiko had no problems doing it. What was she so afraid of?


	7. Chapter 6

Stand Out

Chapter 6

**Oh! One thing! Max Goof is played by the same guy who played Chase in the show… Hoped someone would comment on that… Either way, I wanted it to be a moment where someone could giggle and go 'of course'… Oh well… I can wait for that comment… I can wait forever… J. Mars… I shall wait…**

It was Saturday morning, Kimiko woke up around 9:30 and she went right for the shower. Keiko wasn't up yet. She and Keiko were living together because Kimiko's father insisted that neither one of them live alone when they go to China to attend this new school. But, like in Japan, Kimiko's morning routine was very different from Keiko's. Keiko only got up if she had to, Kimiko got up because she couldn't stand being in bed so long. It made her feel useless to be lying around for hours on end.

Today they were going to the mall to buy some new clothes and other such necessities for girls. After showering Kimiko went and opened Keiko's door and flipped on the light to wake her up. She then proceeded to go get dressed.

She felt like going Vamp today. She put on a laced red and black skirt; it was very short, but it popped out like a ball gown and looked like a frilly cone that hung limply out around her thighs. She wore red and black striped stockings underneath to hide her panties. She wasn't gonna give the boys a show so early! For her shirt she chose a black fancy blouse-like sleeveless shirt. And she had a red and black striped tie on around her neck. She put her hair up in a messy ponytail and held it with a red clip. She had red lipstick on and had thick black eye-liner on. She was dressed to kill. If you didn't know she was so nice, you would've thought she was a goth!

Keiko finally got up; she was wearing a pink dress with white lace designs all along the fabric. Her hair was up in curly pigtails and she had pink lipstick and eye shadow on. Her shoes were pink heels. Basically the exact opposite of punk-rocker Kimiko's outfit. Complete with black combat boots.

They had walked out of the house nearly a half hour ago. They refused taxis, as they knew not to trust any adults when Kimiko was dressed so skimpily. They reached the mall and immediately went shopping for clothes. They had bought their fair share of garments when Keiko began complaining that she needed coffee.

They found a coffee shop in the mall that looked promising. There weren't very many people there, and they had people reading poetry. It seemed like a really relaxing place. So Kimiko had Keiko get a table while she went up and got them drinks. She knew exactly what Keiko liked, so she didn't need her to tell her. Kimiko was trying to decide for herself what she wanted.

"Why not just get a cappuccino little vampire?" an all too familiar voice asked Kimiko teasingly.

Her face fell and her cheeks reddened. She knew it was Chase.

"That skirt's a little on the risky side, isn't it?" he asked, gently tugging at her skirt. Kimiko wanted to scream at him. That was so inappropriate it could classify as harassment!

She slapped his hand away and snapped at him, "Don't you EVER touch me like that again!" Chase put up his hands in a surrendering fashion and stepped back.

"Relax," he said calmly, "I was just saying it was on the short side…"

Kimiko scowled at him. "You didn't have to touch it, ya perv!" she hissed at him. Chase smiled after looking offended for a brief moment.

He chuckled as she turned away again. "Perv?" he repeated. Kimiko didn't even turn around when he spoke; her face was so red she couldn't bear for him to see her like that.

After getting her coffee Kimiko hurried back to Keiko. Keiko, unfortunately, had seen Chase playing with her skirt. Keiko looked like she was ready to beat Kimiko's face in. But after getting her coffee, Keiko calmed down enough to call Chase over to come sit with them. In spite of Kimiko's protests.

"Woah, you two certainly went on the shopping spree, didn't you?" he asked, sitting next to Keiko as Kimiko was sitting beside all the bags. Chase wasn't too happy about that. He had kind of wanted to sit with her; she looked _incredible_ in those clothes! All Chase wanted to do was kiss her, that was the only thing running through his mind, but unfortunately for lover boy, Kimiko remained cold and cynical.

She replied to his comment with a snarky response. "Oh yeah, and we've yet to hit Paris, you know…" she grumbled before sipping her coffee. Chase frowned; she still didn't want to get close to him.

But it was just the opposite. Kimiko wanted desperately to be sitting where Keiko was, to be able to rub his arm fondly without him caring in the slightest. She wanted to be able to cling to his arm and to talk to him without her entire body stiffening out of embarrassment and hormones. She wanted to be with him, but her own shortcomings stopped her from doing so.

Keiko begged Chase to go to the music store with them after this, but he wanted Kimiko's okay before tagging along. He looked at her, waiting for her response.

Kimiko groaned, rolled her eyes, and looked away, but she said he could if Keiko wanted him to go that badly. Chase smiled at her lie; he could see that she liked him, but she was just so damn stubborn! She would not admit to him that she liked him, no matter what he did! Even when he tried to show her that he felt the same way, she continued to distance herself from him. Why? Oh how he wished he could get inside her head and see why she kept pulling herself away from him!

They went to the music store and Kimiko immediately began looking for more music by the man who wrote Stand Out. She wanted to have all of his music because it was all good. Of course, she did listen to other music, so she then went to the alternative section of the store.

Chase followed her, hoping to talk to her while she looked for CDs. The homecoming dance was coming up in two weeks; he wanted to go with her. He knew girls would start asking him as soon as then got back to school, so he wanted to be able to say he already had a date and actually mean it.

Kimiko picked up a case that had skulls being eaten by snakes and immediately let out a curious 'ooooh'.

"So, um… Kimiko…?" Chase spoke to her nervously. That wasn't like him, so Kimiko immediately looked at him. He swallowed before continuing, "Um… you know the homecoming dance is coming up in a couple weeks…" Kimiko felt her cheeks heat up and her hopes rise, he was asking her to go with him, "And… the girls at school will be asking me as soon as we all get back to school on Monday… So… I was wondering… if you're not going with anyone yet… Maybe you'd want to go with me…?" He finished breathlessly, praying she'd say yes.

Kimiko smiled sweetly at him, her cheeks a dark shade of red. She noticed Keiko watching them; she immediately felt her heart sink. She knew Keiko had heard the question and she immediately felt like she would be betraying her if she said yes.

"Um… Chase… I…" she started, but Keiko popped in.

"Kim and I go to dances together, Chase!" Keiko suddenly said. Chase felt his hopes fall through, but Keiko continued, "Of course, you could go with both of us if you want. We both would enjoy your company."

Chase smiled weakly. "That'd be fine. I'd like that…" he said, obvious disappointment present in his voice. Kimiko felt really bad, but now she was mad at Keiko for lying like that and keeping her and Chase apart.

They all finished shopping, Chase not really buying much more than a couple metal CDs. Kimiko had him help carry some of the bags as Keiko walked ahead of them with the keys to their house. Kimiko took the chance to talk to Chase about earlier.

"Chase… I'm sorry about earlier… Keiko and I are best friends… I don't think she wanted you going with anyone else… She really likes you, you know…" she said behind the mounds of bags in her arms.

Chase looked at her. "And what about you?" he asked, once again getting his hopes up.

Kimiko felt her face heat up, but luckily Chase couldn't really see her through the bags. She laughed and replied, "Don't flatter yourself, sexy-ass." After she said it, Kimiko felt like she had just blurted out that she liked him. She had. Chase felt sudden joy in hearing her call him that.

"You think it's sexy?" he said, nudging her arm with his elbow. Kimiko's ears were blood red, he could see them. He smiled widely. "I think yours is cuter than mine," he added, playfully nudging her again.

Kimiko stuttered, "I-I sa-said d-don't flat-tter yourself…" But Chase was now satisfied with the knowledge that Kimiko was weak to him. He felt it was only a matter of time before he could finally brake down her wall.

If he had known what Kimiko was thinking he would have realized that she didn't think he liked her the way she liked him. Kimiko thought Chase simply enjoyed the company of a girl that wasn't selling herself to him. Kimiko wanted him to notice her; she wanted him to like her. She wanted Chase to love her, in spite of how much she feared embarrassing herself in front of him. Kimiko wanted to catch Chase's interest.

She should have realized that she already had it.


	8. Chapter 7

Stand Out

Chapter 7… Why do I love seven so much?

It was Monday, and Kimiko was heading back to school with Keiko. Kimiko felt today would be a fun day for yellow. So, she had neon yellow stockings on her legs under her skirt, she had yellow bracelets on, she had yellow eye shadow on, and she had her hair up in pigtails with yellow hair ties.

Strangely enough, Keiko had put yellow accessories on that day too. Not as much as Kimiko, but still some yellow. Keiko had her hair held back by a yellow clip and she had yellow earrings along with yellow bracelets. It was kinda freaky.

Chase hadn't lied about people asking about homecoming already. Guys were stalking her all day trying to get her to go with them. She was almost positive that the same guy had asked her about ten times that day!

When she had gotten to her locker, she noticed Chase standing at his, smiling at her. Kimiko smiled back, but she looked away before he could see that she was starting to blush.

Girls were crowding around him all day long. Even in lunch, when he normally sat alone at his table, girls were incredibly brave and sitting with him. It made Kimiko laugh to see how pissed off he looked. All day he looked ready to rip someone's head off. It was actually quite amusing.

At the end of the day, Kimiko decided to go see Chase teaching martial arts; in fact, she was gonna train with him. She wanted to kick his ass, just to show him that she was capable of doing it.

Keiko had decided to go with her, but she just wanted to watch. So while Kimiko changed into a tight yellow tang top with a cat head on it and black shorts over her yellow stockings, Keiko sat on the bleachers. She watched Chase knock countless guys down, giggling every time he did. Wuya and Ashley were sitting with her, all of them commenting on how perfect Chase's body was.

Kimiko came out and walked over to the group of guys waiting to fight Chase. Raimundo moved instantly, letting Kimiko into the 'line'. Rai told Kim to kick his ass when it was her turn to fight him.

Chase looked shocked to see her.

"K-Kimiko?" he stuttered.

She stepped onto the mat, smiling fiendishly at him. "What's the matter? Afraid you'll get beat by a girl?" she teased.

Chase smiled at that question and took his fighting stance. Kimiko did the same and they immediately began swinging their limbs at each other. The guys were cheering for her, the girls, for Chase.

Kimiko was trying to drown all of them out. She began humming Stand Out to herself as she struck at Chase; soon it became quiet singing. And once the song was the only thing running through her mind, she was able to see all of Chase's movements as if they were going by in slow motion.

She struck out at his chest; he pulled away, but she swept kicked him and knocked him onto his back.

Chase put his hand on his head and he felt a foot upon his chest. He looked up to see Kimiko smiling and holding a hand out to him. She had won. Something the girls were not happy about, but the guys were thrilled about.

He took her hand and after he was on his feet again, Kimiko playfully punched his arm.

"I win," she said happily as she walked to the girls' locker room. Chase only smiled as he watched her walk away. She was so cute when she was pretending to be smug, she was so bad at being arrogant about anything it was adorable.

Walking home with Keiko, Kimiko was being scolded. Keiko kept telling her that Chase wasn't going to want to go to the dance with them if she kept being so mean to him.

"Keiko, he knows I was messing with him," Kimiko groaned in response, "Geez…"

Keiko pouted at her. "I still think you should try and be a little girlier around him. Normal girls aren't supposed to be able to beat up a guy who's older than her…" she said, matter-of-factly.

Kimiko groaned again, just before she felt someone pat her on the back.

"Excellent job kicking ass out there Kim!" it was Raimundo.

Kimiko giggled. "Just doing what you told me, Rai," she said innocently. He only laughed.

She and Keiko went home and they began their homework.

But of course, only ten minutes into their homework, the phone rang. Kimiko got up and said she'd get it.

"Hello, Tohomiko… well… no… Hello?" she said, she almost said Tohomiko residence, but had caught herself.

"Kimiko? Hey! It's Chase," the voice on the other end replied.

Kimiko practically had a heart attack. "HOW THE HELL DI YOU GET OUR NUMBER?" she screeched.

Keiko ran into the kitchen just as Chase replied, "Keiko gave it to me…"

Kimiko turned a death glare on her, Keiko knew instantly. Keiko screamed and Kimiko dropped the phone to chase Keiko around the house.

Chase could hear the screaming on the other side of the phone. He laughed to himself; he had a feeling he knew what was going on. After a few minutes, a panting Kimiko spoke again.

Between gasps for air, "Sorry about that, had to lock Keiko in the closet… So… What's up…?"

Chase laughed heartily. "I was just wondering if you and Keiko wanted to go with my friend and I to dinner…"

"Friend? Who?"

Chase replied calmly, "He's an orphan, and I sorta adopted him. He's really nice; I just thought you guys might wanna go…"

Kimiko blinked a few times. Chase adopted a kid? He was still in high school! But she replied, "Yeah, that sounds cool. I'll let Keiko know."

Chase felt joy surge through him. "Really? Awesome! So… I'll see you guys in a bit…?"

"Yeah, sure. See ya then…" she said before turning off the cordless phone and putting it back. She walked over to the closet and unlocked it, letting Keiko loose.

"What's going on? Why did Chase call?" Keiko was desperate to know.

Kimiko sighed, rubbing her forehead. "He invited us to dinner with him and an orphan that he adopted," she groaned, trying to relieve herself of the headache that was starting. Keiko squealed and immediately ran to change clothes.

Kimiko went to change as well. She was trying to decide between a blue dress and a pink uniform sort of cosplay outfit she had bought because it was adorably cute. She chose the cosplay. It was a black shirt with pink plaid trimming at the edge of the short sleeves and pink plaid around the neckline. The skirt was the same pink plaid and it was just a little bit shorter than the skirt she wore for her uniform at school.

'Wouldn't mind wearing this as my uniform,' she thought, twisting her hips back and forth, watching the skirt twirl around her legs. She had lost the yellow, so now she looked like a cute TV show schoolgirl. She felt like she was two years younger.

Keiko came to see what she was wearing and said, shocked, "You're wearing _that_?"

Kimiko turned and asked, "What's wrong with it?"

Keiko had chosen a red dress that clung to her cleavage and had a not-so straight cut bottom. Flesh on her right leg could be seen all the way up to the top of her thigh. Her left leg was rather covered, but her bosom was nicely exposed. And because the dress clung to her boobs, it made them look too large for the dress. Kimiko groaned, she was trying to impress Chase.

Keiko replied, "Well don't you think you should wear something nicer?"

"We're going with him and a kid he adopted Keiko. Not just Chase. It's sort of a double date…" she said, rubbing her forehead again.

"Fine, but Chase is my date and you get the orphan kid," she said, heading back to her room to apply a little make-up. Kimiko groaned again, plopping herself down on her bed. And this was her best friend.

After a couple of minutes Kimiko heard the doorbell. Chase didn't take long to get there, did he?

She opened the door to find Chase in a blue traditional Chinese shirt and darker blue pants. He looked really nice. He smiled when he saw her and suddenly a higher pitched voice piped up a question to Kimiko.

"Are you a schoolgirl?" the little voice asked. Kimiko looked down to the voice and found an adorable little boy with a large yellow head looking up at her. He looked about nine years old and he was wearing traditional Chinese robes. They were red with black trimmings and he had black pants on. He was SOOO cute!

Kimiko smiled and squatted down. "I am, but this isn't my normal uniform," she replied, "My name's Kimiko, what's yours?"

He smiled widely and said, "I am Omi! It is wonderful to meet you!" Omi then proceeded to hug her.

Kimiko smiled happily and patted his head. How had Chase fond such an adorably cute little kid?

She looked up at Chase, her eyes asking the question for her lips.

"I went to the park a couple of days ago and I met Omi. He told me he was an orphan, and I had grown pretty fond of the little guy, so I adopted him…" he said, watching Omi nuzzle his head into Kimiko's chest. Chase felt a slight pang of jealousy in seeing how Omi was able to rub his innocent face into Kimiko's breasts; but he knew that Omi was too little to realize what he was doing, so the feeling of jealousy passed.

Kimiko smiled and said, "Well I'm glad," she then addressed Omi, "You're too cute to not have a family little guy." Omi smiled widely at her and then Kimiko heard Keiko walking up behind her.

Kimiko let Omi say hi to Keiko and when everybody was acquainted, they all headed to the restaurant Chase had picked out. The whole time they were there, Omi kept asking all sorts of questions. He had asked which of them would be willing to be his 'mommy', he asked if Chase was his 'daddy', he asked why puppies were so cute, he asked if Unicorns were real because a girl had told him they were once, he asked why Bigfoot had such big feet, he asked if Santa was lonely up at the north pole, and he even asked why girls were so pretty.

It was difficult to answer all of his questions, but Chase did count as his dad, and Kimiko said she'd be his mom and Keiko said she'd be his aunt. But when Keiko realized that that meant Kimiko and Chase were 'married' she wanted to trade. Didn't happen. Omi said he liked Kimiko as his mom and her as his auntie. Haha to Keiko!

After the dinner, they all decided to go back to Kimiko's and Keiko's to watch a movie. It was difficult, but Omi decided he wanted to watch Finding Nemo. He said he liked it cuz Nemo sounded fairly like Omi. Honestly, Kimiko didn't care, so long as he didn't pick one of Keiko's chick flicks.

And once they finished their fish themed movie, Chase left with his adopted kid. Loveable little Omi had no idea how close he had brought Kimiko and Chase together, even though he hadn't tried!

**Kinda surprised nobody asked where Omi was… I mentioned him, did I not? Anyhow, yeah, Omi is Chase's adopted kid. Weird, huh? I just thought of it, actually… LOL, Omi's so cute…! I love making him an adorably naïve kid! Teehee. Chase and Kimiko are his mommy and daddy….! XD I'm happy!**


	9. Chapter 8

GreatDarkNoodleKing's Notice for you, you, you, and, oh good God not you, and especially you…

HEY! Sorry I haven't updated Stand Out in so long! What with the surgery, I had a crapton of ideas for my other fic Memories… So, yeah. I apologize for not updating! Still surprised that nobody asked where Omi was before last chapter… I know I would have asked… But yeah, I've got some ideas still for this, kay? RAWR!

Stand Out

Chapter 8

Going to school today wasn't much fun for Kimiko and Keiko, or anyone else for that matter. It was pouring buckets of rain down! Keiko had brought an umbrella, but Kimiko said she didn't want one; she liked the rain. The rainwater soaked Kimiko's hair and her uniform and her accessories.

Today was her jade green day. All of her accessories were jade and they all looked really pretty when compared next to her eyes. Of course, when they were wet, they looked like forest green, but that didn't really matter.

When Kimiko got inside Raimundo spoke to her first. "Geez, you look like a wet dog…" he said with a smile. Kimiko grinned devilishly at him and proceeded to punch his arm.

She got through first period totally fine, but in gym things went wrong. Because her hair was still wet, it dripped every now and then and people occasionally tripped on the water so the teacher sent her to the principal's because she was being a health hazard.

She was given a stern talking to and she was made to dry her hair, but other than that, the principal couldn't really do much about her wet hair. Something Kimiko took pride in.

"He made me get rid of my drugs," Kimiko told Jack when he asked what happened. Jack laughed and gave her a hearty pat on the back.

"You're all right Kim, you're all right…" he said happily as he held her shoulders and gave her a side hug.

It had yet to stop raining all day; it was almost the end of resource and it was still pouring outside.

"Hey Kimiko," Chase said when she was at her locker getting her stuff for lunch. She smiled up at him and continued shoving books into her locker. "Pretty crappy day out, isn't it?" he asked.

Chase mentally kicked himself. He had wanted to ask her out, not talk about the fricking weather! STUPID!

Kimiko sighed, "Not really, I kinda like the rain…"

"Re-really?" Chase asked, looking her over.

"Mm hm!" she mumbled as she stood up and closed her locker, "Well, I'll see ya later, Keiko and I have a bunch of stuff to talk about in lunch…!"

Chase watched her walk away, and as soon as he could no longer hear her footsteps, he yelled at himself.

"Gah! That was so stupid!" he yelled, hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand, "You don't talk to a girl about the weather! If you talk about the weather then she knows you're trying to talk about something else, but she doesn't know what it was, so she keeps talking about the fricking weather! Stupid!"

A quiet voice asked him, "If you like her all that much, why don't you ask her to the dance?"

Chase turned and found Spicer standing there, watching him.

"I did, but then Keiko jumped in an-" Jack cut him off.

"Y'know Chase, you're not the only guy that has feelings for Kimiko. And there's other girls who like you. If you really want to be with her, you're gonna have to be willing to fight for her," Jack stated, sounding really smart.

Chase looked at him. "You like her too?" he asked. Jack nodded and Chase asked, "Well if you did, why aren't you trying anything to get her and stop me?"

Jack sighed. "Raimundo would do that… And she likes you. If I tried to keep her from the guy she likes, what kind of friend would I be?" Jack spoke calmly.

"But, don't you want to be more than that?" Chase asked, confused.

"I'm happy having Kimiko as a friend, than not have her at all… You might not be…" Jack said before turning and walking away.

Chase stood in the hall until the bell rang. Jack was right; he didn't want to be just friends with Kimiko. But she had every boy she met falling under her spell; how could he win her over?

**The Ur… Tohomiko residence…? Later that day…**

Kimiko was dancing in the living room to Shut Me Up by MSI. She felt like listening to them, so she put the CD in. Keiko kept telling her that she was heading out, because she figured Kimiko couldn't hear her over her music. Kimiko could though, and she was getting irritated with the constant reminders.

When Keiko finally went out with her friends, who Kimiko didn't bother to even look at, it was like a blessing to Kimiko. She turned her music up even louder and continued dancing around.

The phone rang, so Kimiko walked in and picked it up.

"Hello," she said calmly, the music blaring behind her.

"Hey, Kimiko? What _is_ that?" it sounded like Chase, so Kimiko turned her music down a little.

"I was listening to music, this Chase?" she asked after it was quiet enough to tell.

"That it is," he said calmly, "Hey, um, I was wondering if you and Keiko wanted to go to a movie with Omi and I… He's been begging me to take him to go see that new Winnie the Pooh thing…"

Kimiko smiled. "Well, Keiko just went out, so she'll most likely be saying no by default. But I'd love to go with you guys. Which theater?" she replied happily. Chase laughed at the comment about Keiko and told her where to meet them.

Kimiko had changed when she got home, she put on a simple red t-shirt that had black vines all over it and she had put on a pair of black shorts.

When Chase showed up with Omi, Kimiko gave the little guy a big hug and lifted him onto her shoulders. Chase only smiled at her and they walked to the movie. The entire time, Omi kept saying he loved Pooh. He said it was because they looked so much alike, which frighteningly enough, they did.

After if was over, Kimiko asked if they wanted to come over to her house for a little while. Omi begged Chase to say yes, which he did after about ten seconds of Omi's begging. When Omi wanted something, all he had to do was flash you the puppy dog eyes and he got exactly what he wanted.

"Aw crap, I left my music on," Kimiko said upon entering the house. Her MSI CD was still blaring its array of music, and there were words in the songs that Omi should not have heard. He was asking about them all night.

Chase rubbed Omi's head and said, "We'll tell you what they mean when you're older, Omi…" Omi was incredibly displeased to hear that they wouldn't tell him, but after Kimiko offered to make cookies with him he cheered right up.

They made a huge mess with the ingredients; brown sugar was everywhere, but the cookies tasted good all the same.

Omi was currently in the living room, watching TV and happily munching on the chocolate-chip cookies. Kimiko was in the kitchen, cleaning up the mess.

Chase came in. "Need any help?" he asked, reaching to grab a sponge.

"Would you mind?" she asked, looking at him.

"Not at all," he replied as he began to help her clean up the mess of brown sugar, chocolate chips, and butter. Why there was so much butter everywhere, she wasn't entirely sure, but she cleaned it up all the same.

Kimiko felt arms wrap around her waist and she felt Chase push his chest into her back. Her cheeks went scarlet; Chase was coddling her!

"Wh- what are you doing…?" she asked with a nervous stutter.

Chase smiled and moved his lips down to her ear. "Thanks for doing this tonight…" he whispered, purposely brushing his lips against her earlobe, "Omi needs a mother figure…"

Kimiko's blush darkened, but she replied, "It was nothing." she felt Chase smile against her ear and he lowered his head down to her neck to gently nuzzle her pulse with his lips. Now Kimiko's entire face was beat red. Which meant that so was her stomach.

"Chase…" she breathed his name, causing him to smile a little against the pulse in her neck. Kimiko then whispered, "Stop…" He frowned at that, but he obliged.

"Sorry," he whispered.

Kimiko turned to look at him and said softly, "Don't be sorry. It's just that if Keiko found us like that, I don't think she'd be my friend any longer…" Chase looked sad, but he nodded.

The two of them went out into the living room and sat with Omi, each occasionally stealing a cookie from him.

At least Chase knew that Kimiko wanted to be with him; that was what he had been testing. Jack had told him that Kimiko liked him, and he found out it was the truth. Now the only thing standing between them was Keiko. And she was trouble all on her own.


	10. Chapter 9

I apologize for practically dropping this story into the dust! OMG, I feel so bad…! I should've at least tried or something…!

My spelling errors are getting fewer and far(er?) between! There's always the missing h somewhere, but my h key sticks… Weird… Oh, and my shift keys stick every now and then too, so sometimes Chase is left without his capital C… Poor guy…

Anyway, I'm working on improving, I think…

Stand Out

Chapter 9

Chase had taken Omi home before Keiko had even gotten back. Kimiko didn't care what was taking her so long, she was still high off having Chase coddle her in the kitchen. She had felt dizzy and light-headed for the rest of the night. After he left, Kimiko went up to bed and immediately drifted off to sleep.

When morning finally came, Kimiko had to wake Keiko up as usual, and she then got dressed. Today was her cocoa brown day. It actually complimented her pale skin and blue eyes very well; which surprised her.

On the way to school, they saw Chase walking with Omi. Omi had their uniform on, and it looked so CUTE on him! It was like a miniature uniform. Kimiko had completely forgotten that their school kept everyone from kindergarten to high school in the same building; just different wings of the building.

Girls were following Chase around as usual, but it seemed like Omi only drew more girls. Maybe girls saw Omi as their ticket to having a kid of their own with Chase; he was rather fatherly…

Kimiko decided to sneak up on Omi. She crept up behind them, Chase saw her, but didn't stop her, and Kimiko grabbed Omi and pulled him up onto her shoulders. Omi didn't scream, he just laughed. Omi was just so fricking CUTE!

Chase was happy to see her, but not as happy as Keiko was to see him. She ran up and immediately clung to his arm. Omi had his fingers entwined in Kimiko's hair, so it took a little time to get him off her.

First period was rather dull, they had a substitute that didn't know the dress code, so nobody got sent to the office. It was so boring to actually sit through an entire class! Se had yet to actually sit through an entire first period lesson! The teacher had always sent her to the office, at least once. She had been getting used to leaving.

Gym was strange. The teacher suddenly seemed interested in Kimiko. Maybe he had heard about how she had beaten Chase the other day? She wasn't sure, but she didn't like the smiles he kept flashing her. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable around him. So, Kimiko whispered questions to Jack about the couch being a pedophile or a pervert. Jack had said he wasn't sure; the coach was a widower, so he had no clue. During gym, Chase had occasionally tried to get away from the other girls, but he was never successful. And that made her laugh.

Resource fifth period was okay. Kimiko had gone to the library and had been nearly killed by Ashley when Chase sat with her. Ashley obviously didn't like it, she kept telling Kimiko to move. Kimiko had nearly lashed out at her, but the teacher had gone by when she was about to. As soon as the teacher went by, however, she pounced on her and immediately went for the throat. Chase had to pull them apart and walk them both to the office. Kimiko actually had some scratch marks on her face from the girl's nails. They were long, and they were sharp!

So Kimiko said she attacked Ashley because Ashley had been pestering her in the library. She got detention in the gym again. Honestly, Kimiko would have preferred detention anywhere else; she was still getting weird vibes from the teacher.

"You shouldn't have done that," Chase said softly, as they walked to their lockers.

Kimiko scoffed, "I wasn't gonna let her tell me where I can and can't sit. Besides, you were the one who sat next to me! I had already been there, so it wasn't even my fault!"

Chase smiled at her as she tried and failed to get her locker open. She looked at him and simply asked for help. Chase did, he pressed on the opposite end of her locker and pulled it open.

After he got it open, Chase put his arms around her. Kimiko went beat red, she hadn't been expecting that! True, she liked the feeling, but she still was caught off guard.

"I just don't want you to get expelled, is all…" he muttered as e sniffed her hair and nuzzled her.

Kimiko blinked and repeated, "Expelled?"

"People who fight too often get expelled," he whispered. Chase was hardly listening to himself, she smelled like lilacs and vanilla, and for some reason, the smell was driving him crazy.

Kimiko finally pulled herself out of his iron grip and got her stuff out of her locker. Chase leaned on the one next to hers, moving everything inside hers over a little. She would have to ask about her locker neighbor's habits of keeping too much crap in their locker.

Chase liked her. A LOT. It seemed like she wasn't afraid to talk to him anymore, so at least he knew he was making progress, but Chase wanted so much more than just to talk. He wondered if maybe at the dance, which was this Saturday, they'd actually be able to kiss or something. Fantasies were running through his mind.

He was woken when Kimiko punched his arm and walked off. He smiled after her, rubbing his arm.

"You know, if you keep that up, I'm going to file for abuse," he said, following her to lunch. Kimiko laughed heartily at that comment.

"Good," she said simply before punching him again and hurrying off to the cafeteria.

During lunch, Omi was sitting with Chase. Keiko kept using him as an excuse to go and sit with Chase; she was begging Kimiko to go with her. Kimiko thought about it and asked the guys if they wanted to go too. Everyone said they wouldn't mind.

So their entire table came over and sat with Chase and Omi. Omi was overjoyed to see them all sitting with them, Chase mostly looked surprised. Kimiko could feel death glares from all the other girls, but honestly, if they were going to be that petty then they could kiss her ass.

Kimiko went to the gym for her detention, Chase was still giving lessons to the guys. So she watched and listened to her music. She knew when it was time to leave on her own, the boys all started leaving.

When she stood up and took her headphones out, she noticed the coach had been heading towards her, but he stopped. When he noticed she knew it was time to leave, he walked off.

Kimiko watched him warily as she walked down the bleachers. When she reached the bottom, she was greeted by Chase. He said a happy hello to her, but noticed she seemed nervous.

"You okay?" he asked, following her gaze with his eyes.

Kimiko nodded and muttered, "Yeah… The coach just seems to be getting real friendly towards me all of a sudden…"

Chase simply went, "Huh…" He noticed she still seemed worried and offered, "If you want to wait to go home until I'm changed, you can… I'll walk you."

"Would you?" she seemed really happy to hear that, so Chase said he would. Kimiko didn't trust the coach; he was acting an awful lot like that drunken man who had tried to attack her.

Chase came back out and looped his arm in hers. The two of them walked out of the gym, and they each noticed the coach watching them. Kimiko felt Chase's arm tighten around hers. Obviously he got the vibe she was getting.

When they were out of the school Chase immediately addressed the issue.

"If he ever tries anything on you, let me know. I'll kill him," he said to her, still not letting go of her. Kimiko only nodded and walked with Chase. He told her that Omi was already home; the little guy had called his cell phone earlier to let him know, so Chase said he'd have to hurry with their walk home. Kimiko didn't care how long or short the walk was, she was just happy to be able to be so close to Chase without the fear of getting murdered by the other girls.

He dropped her off at her house and hurried off to his own. Kimiko came in and found Keiko was out. She had left a note saying she had gone to buy desserts with her friends. Whatever, Kimiko didn't really care.

She did he little bit of homework she had and Kimiko decided to work on her dress for homecoming. She was making it herself and she wanted it to be perfect. Although Keiko would still have to go dress shopping, Kimiko was thankful she wouldn't. Dress shopping never worked out for her, because there was never that perfect dress for her. She always had to make it.

Keiko finally got back around eight-ish. She brought Kimiko a rather large slice of cheesecake and asked how her detention went.

"Okay… the coach is trying to rape me, though…" she replied, groggily eating a spoonful of cake. Keiko flipped out when she heard that, but Kimiko calmed her down and explained it to her. Keiko was still fairly worried, but then, so was Kimiko. Gym wasn't going to be fun for the rest of the week.

The week went by rather slowly, gym was okay, but the coach still had a newfound interest in Kimiko that bothered her, Chase, and Keiko. Jack was beginning to take notice of the coach's strange behavior and he began offering to build Kimiko a rape-defend-o-bot. Kimiko said a rape whistle would suffice, and he actually bought her one! Kimiko kept it with her at all times; she ore it as a necklace. But other than the creepy feeling she got around the coach, things were pretty normal.

Kimiko and Keiko went dress shopping and they found Keiko a very pretty creamsicle orange sherbet dress that fit her figure perfectly. It had a cute frilly lace bottom that puffed out a couple inches. It was perfect for her.

Saturday came and at around 7:30-ish, Chase showed up. He said he had found a sitter for Omi, so they didn't need to worry. Kimiko had been worried.

Chase wore a fancy traditional black Chinese shirt that had white trimmings and had spikes around the ends of the sleeves. He had a black spiked collar on as well and was wearing black skinny jeans. He looked sort of emo, but he still looked really nice.

When he saw Kimiko, Chase practically died. Her dress was gothic princess themed. The black fabric draped around her little legs and the purple curtains in front of her legs. The top a tight black corset with purple lacings and strings tying the top. The dress puffed out and fell down around her waist, the ends dragging a little on the floor. It was like a gothic ballroom dress with a modern touch. It was perfect for her.

"Where'd you get the dress?" he asked, trying to hide the fact that he was incredibly aroused by how beautiful she looked.

Kimiko smiled. "I made it," she replied, then twirled a little and asked, "Like it?" Chase nodded, unable to find words for how much he liked it.

He walked them to school and of course there were death glares ad other such things, but this was supposed to be a night for fun, so none of it got to them. Chase let the two of them run off and dance and such, he said he wasn't big on dancing. Although every time he saw a guy try to dance with Kimiko, jealousy surged through him. None of the guys deserved to dance with her.

Kimiko was with Keiko at one point, and she looked over to Chase just in time to see him pass out. One of his drinks had been drugged.

"Okay, time to go home," she said, dragging Keiko over to help her take Chase back home. The two of them helped the unconscious Chase get back home; to his actual house because Keiko had found out where it was.

They knocked and the sitter answered. They didn't ask questions, but as soon as the sitter saw Chase, they left.

"Looks like we're gonna have to take care of him…" Kimiko grumbled as Omi came running over from watching television to see what was wrong with Chase. Omi was frantic; he thought Chase was dead. After Kimiko finally assured him that Chase was going to be fine once he woke up and they placed Chase down on a couch and covered him with a blanket.

Everyone stayed out in the room with Chase that night, Omi helped them to bring blankets and pillows out and they all slept in the room with Chase. At one point Kimiko had woken up to find Chase had knocked his blanket off; so she had to put it back on him. He looked incredibly peaceful while he was asleep.

She then laid back down and went back to sleep.

Chase woke up late that night. He sat and looked around for a few seconds. He noticed he was home, happy that Kimiko had helped him. He then noticed Omi sleeping on the ground near him, he was sucking his thumb. Chase looked to see Keiko sleeping on the other couch and Kimiko lying next to Omi on the ground. He smiled. Kimiko's hair was in her face. He gently reached down and tucked the unruly hair behind her ear and observed her sleeping features. Every part of her looked tranquil and relaxed. Her eyes twitched a few times, but that meant she was dreaming.

Chase smiled, watching her sleep made him feel calm. He watched her all night.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey guys. I apologize for my last post. You guys were right, I overreacted. I realized when I re-read the last chapter that I didn't put as big a warning on Stand Out as I did with my other stories, and that was my fault. I apologize for my bad attitude and poor sense of judgment. Although, the one person, whom I do not know as it was left anonymous, I have one question for you.**

**You who wrote that punishing everyone for two people was BS, um…**

**Have you ever gone to school? That's what they do there… **

**Seriously, I went on a field trip in like… I dunno, sixth grade… or was it eighth… Either way, when we got to the theatre, cuz we were going to see a musical, as soon as the lights went out, half the kids near me started screaming. After that, no more field trips for the entire rest of the year.**

**So, again, I apologize for going crazy. **

**My actions in words were over the top and they were just plain inexcusable. I apologize.**

Stand Out

Chapter 10... Right…?

Kimiko woke up to Omi shaking her side. He was saying something about pancakes. When she sat up, Kimiko noticed Chase wasn't on the couch anymore and she could vaguely smell pancakes from another room. Omi was asking her if she wanted chocolate chips or blueberries. Kimiko muttered both and Omi ran off.

Keiko was still asleep. Her hair was everywhere, but that could be fixed when she woke up.

Kimiko stood up, stretching her stiff limbs. Chase's house was really nice. Lots of expensive looking furniture. She wondered if he had hired a personal decorator.

Omi came back into the room with a plate and at least three pancakes and sat on the couch and immediately lathered syrup all over them. He began chomping down on the pancakes, his jaw practically doubling in size to ingest them. He got syrup and chocolate all over his face; it was fricking adorable!

"Champh imph maklking yourmph," he said, his words muffled by bits of pancake. Kimiko giggled and said okay.

Kimiko walked down, following the smell of pancakes, to the kitchen. She found Chase working on a pancake, he flipped it right when she came in.

He smiled when he saw her and asked, "Sleep well?"

"As good as one can when sleeping on the floor," she said, her back a little sore.

Chase chuckled. "Hey, what's Keiko want? Chocolate chip? Blueberry?" he asked, looking at her.

"Keiko's not up yet, but she'll definitely love chocolate," Kimiko replied, snatching a chocolate chip away and eating it. Chase smiled and muttered 'so do you, obviously' and Kimiko proceeded to punch his arm.

After taking the pancake off the burner on the stove Chase looked at her and asked calmly, "Why'd you take me home? You could've just left me there…"

"EW, no! If I did that, at least twenty girls would've had their way with you!" she replied, aghast that he'd even ask. Chase only smiled.

He approached her, wrapping his arms around her waist and whispered, "I'm glad you didn't let them…"

Chase leaned in and their lips melted into each other's. Kimiko kissed back, enamored by how good it felt to kiss Chase.

Omi came into the kitchen and immediately let out a soft gasp, startling them both out of their make-out session. Kimiko's cheeks reddened, but when Omi spoke, a smile came to her face.

"You really are my mommy and daddy!" he yelled happily before running over and giving them both a huge hug around the legs.

Omi was so freaking cute! Chase lifted him up and they both hugged the little guy again.

Awesome, now Omi was okay with their relationship; just all of Kimiko's friends and all the girls at school to go.

**Short chapter, but this is not the end. I want the next chapter to have emotion, and right now, all I'm feeling is tired. That would suck as a chapter. Writing exciting scenes when one is tired is not conducive to writing a good story.**

**So, when I feel more energy, I'll write more.**

**Sorry.**

**For everything.**


	12. Chapter 11 FINALE

**Oiy… Two days… What have I been doing…? Geeze… I need to focus… On what, I dunno… But I need to focus… Naruto and Xiaolin Showdown have been swimming around in the shark infested waters that is my tortured noggin. Along with all my random Pretty Little Liars murder dreams, my head has been quite the interesting place to be… I mean, I dreamt we had a PLL funeral at my house, and we just randomly had caskets… It was odd… My brain has seen some incredible things… Maybe that's why I created Liz… Hmmmmm… Now I'm curious… Liz, why did I make you…?**

**Liz: So you could kill things without getting arrested for it…**

**Ah, yes, that's right! I remember now! Thank you Liz!**

Stand Out

Chapter 11

Kimiko had been secretly trying to go out with Chase every night for the past week. The two of them had gotten two nights all to themselves; both full of make-out sessions; but the rest of the nights, something would ruin their time together. It was getting old to Kimiko; she finally had Chase's affection, and now she just couldn't have it all to herself! Chase had even begun calling her his girlfriend! Why couldn't anyone get the message that they wanted to be alone?

She was sitting in the bleachers for gym; Kimiko had gotten changed a little early. She sat, fiddling with her fingernails; how they got so dirty, she'd never know. Somebody planted themselves right beside her, Kimiko was happy to say that it was Chase. He had finally managed to sit next to her in gym!

"How's your morning been?" she asked, smiling and batting her eyelashes purposefully. She knew already. Chase had been tackled to the ground by Wuya and Ashley when he got to his locker this morning. It had actually been quite funny.

"Dismal," he replied, rubbing his sore wrist, "found out that I nearly sprained my wrist when I tried to get Wolverine off me…" He was referring to Ashley, and hearing that made Kimiko laugh. Yeah, she was worried about his wrist, but that was still pretty funny.

"Hey hey, look who's finally joined the dark side!" Jack said happily as he walked over; he had noticed Chase sitting next to Kimiko.

Chase smirked. "Are you kidding? I'm the leader of the dark side!" he said, putting a hand over his heart and holding his head up. Jack laughed at that and said he was only the leader if he made cookies. "Oh, then Kimiko's the leader," Chase said, holding Kimiko's shoulders, "She makes excellent cookies!"

Kimiko swatted his hands away and whined, "Hey! Not funny!"

"I think it's hilarious!" Jack said, trying to hold his laughter in. Jack failed at that and just began laughing hysterically. Kimiko punched his arm for that.

Raimundo and Clay came over, both confused as to why Jack was laughing so hard and why Chase was suddenly sitting with them. But, they sat down anyway, anything was fine by them.

The coach made certain everyone was prepared for today; they were doing gymnastics. Much to the dismay of all the boys. Kimiko sat, hoping that the coach would call someone _else_ up for demonstration for a change, but no such luck. The coach called Kimiko down to demonstrate one of the flexibility moves. Kimiko tried to convince him that she wasn't flexible in the least, but he didn't really seem to care.

He helped Kimiko bend over backwards so that her head was touching the mat underneath her lower back, while her feet stayed where they were. Kimiko could've sworn she heard her spine pop.

The coach pushed her back forward, his crotch going right against hers. Kimiko felt his member as it rubbed against her through their clothes. She panicked, feigned pain, and fell to the floor, bending out of the shape he had just forced her into.

Chase was one of the first people to jump to their feet after she fell down. Jack, Rai, and Clay being the others. Keiko was out sick today; she had eaten some incredibly bad food and got food poisoning.

The coach had someone escort Kimiko to the nurse; he called Chase down, as he almost always did. Chase hurriedly helped Kimiko to her feet and walked with his arms around her shoulders.

As soon as they were out of the hall the gym was at the end of, Kimiko finally let her terror show. She began shaking uncontrollably and her face went white. She broke into a cold sweat and was trying to warm up her fingers that were suddenly ice cold.

"Kimiko, what's wrong?" Chase asked, noticing the change in her instantly.

Kimiko swallowed a few times, trying to find her voice. She cleared the lump in her throat and she said softly, "I don't want to be part of the gymnastics demonstrations anymore…." Chase stared at her in worried confusion, but Kimiko couldn't manage the strength to explain to him what happened.

"Okay sweetie, let's give you something for your nerves," the nurse said, setting Kimiko down upon one of the beds. Chase stayed and watched to make sure Kimiko was okay. The nurse gave Kimiko two pills and some water. She calmed down a little while after swallowing them.

"Now, what caused your panic attack, dear?" the nurse asked sweetly.

Kimiko couldn't find her voice, so Chase told the nurse what had happened. "The coach was using her for gymnastics demonstration and I think he bent her spine too far back. Maybe she shouldn't do gymnastics?" Chase had offered that last part, remembering what Kimiko had said to him earlier.

The nurse looked at Kimiko and she said softly, "Alright, no more gymnastics. I'll let the coach know. You just rest a while, sweetie." The nurse went off to call the coach and she left Chase and Kimiko alone.

He smiled warmly at her and said gently, "I'm here if you need me…" Kimiko nodded, but she still looked pretty much terrified. Chase went up to her and put an arm around her and began stroking her back. "It'll be alright," he told her reassuringly. Kimiko nodded once more; it was like she wasn't even there.

Chase gently kissed her cheek and said he had to go back to class, but that she could come find him if she needed anything.

After a while, Kimiko fell asleep. She woke up, tired, and tried lifting herself from the bed. She couldn't. Something was weighing her down.

She looked up and to her horror, the coach was straddling her. Kimiko was about to scream, when he slammed his hand over her mouth.

The coach began grinding his hips against her. Kimiko felt panic rushing through her veins. She bit the coach's palm.

In his moment of painfully pulling his hand away, she threw him off of her and ran out of the nurse's office, screaming.

Kimiko ran through hallway after hallway; screaming at the top of her lungs as the coach chased her.

People were opening classroom doors and looking into the hallway in confusion. Kimiko had to dodge and swerve to get away. The coach didn't seem to care that everyone could see him chasing her; he was determined to get what he wanted.

Kimiko knew exactly where she was going, for some reason; she knew it was where she needed to go.

Kimiko made it to the hall that housed the principal's office and saw Chase in front of the door. Kimiko screamed his name and ran into his arms. She nearly knocked him over, but Chase had been slammed into the door by his sprinting girlfriend.

"Kim? Kim? What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, noticing how scared she looked. Kimiko was sobbing into Chase's chest. Tons of kids were in the hall now; everyone could see Kimiko crying into Chase's chest.

"Let go of the girl," the raspy voice of the coach ordered, "she needs to be punished for what she did…"

Every kid in the hall was confused by this except Chase. When the coach said that, Kimiko had been whimpering no over and over again. He knew exactly what was going on and he wasn't going to let this ass take Kimiko like that.

Chase took Kimiko's shoulders and gently leaned her against a locker. Kimiko didn't fight with him, her nerves were shot; nothing was cooperating with her anymore. Chase approached the coach slowly and spoke darkly to him.

"You want to rape Kimiko, you had better be prepared to deal with me, asshole." Chase's voice was low, dark, menacing. And as soon as he said it, the coach struck at him.

Chase knew how to fight, though. He was obviously better than the coach. The coach kept striking at him, over and over, but Chase was the one landing all the hits.

The principal finally came out and had to get security to separate the two. Chase hardly had a scratch on him; the coach was bloody and bruised.

When the principal asked what had happened, Chase shouted, "HE TRIED TO RAPE KIMIKO!" Chase was muttering about killing him, struggling with the security guards holding him back.

Others in the crowd heard that. Raimundo and Jack both forced their way through the crowd and immediately ran to Kimiko to see if she was okay. After going to her side, Raimundo ran towards the coach. He tried to punch the man in the face, but was immediately held back by a security guard.

All throughout the rest of the day, the principal had to get the story from everyone. The coach denied everything, of course, saying Kimiko had simply bit him and he got carried away. Chase had insisted that Kimiko had gotten weird vibes from the coach for a while; Jack backed him up on that. Raimundo said he didn't know what happened, but he knew Kimiko was definitely shaken up by the coach about something. Kimiko's story was the one that sealed the coach's fate however. She had told him about he came into the nurse's office and had tried to rape her. It was found on the security cameras a few minutes later.

The coach was arrested. Kimiko was finally let out of the principal's office; greeted by the warm embrace of her now very known boyfriend. Chase held her in his arms and repeatedly kissed her forehead.

Kimiko lifted her head to look up at him and she asked, "Ever see a prisoner throw the warden in jail before?" Chase smiled at that and kissed her happily. Kimiko was safe, and now, she was all his.

STAND OUT

**And that is the end! I had wanted to end it with something like that… The coach causing crap… You know… What did ya think? Almost said y'all… Geeze… Did you like the ending? I certainly hope so, cuz I'm NOT re-writing it! Too much work. Too lazy.**


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